Edsin's Own
by AK-4142
Summary: Traitor-Sergeant Edsin really doesn't care. Maybe that's why he fell to Chaos. Maybe that's why he doesn't contribute much to the cause. And maybe that's why he keeps running into others who are doing the same. Based on the concept of Black Crusade.
1. Chapter 1

"_Thought for the day: Heresy grows from idleness." _

Traitor Sergeant Edsin's eyes snapped open as the old saying stabbed into his dream. He frowned, now awake and fully tuned into the rattling of the chimera, the arguments from the other traitors, and his own discomfort. It had been a good dream too. The kind of dream that you didn't remember any part of but still remembered liking. Normally it would have put him in a good mood, but the last part, the distant memory from his more pious days had ruined the experience. Mad and now unable to sleep he looked to his left to see two other traitors in a deep argument while the rest of the chimera's passengers watched with lazy interest.

"And that's where you're wrong." A man in what looked to have once been priest robes said. "There is so much more to this conflict, this crusade, even to our galactic struggle against the Imperium then what happens on the battlefield." The ex-guardsman he was talking to shook his head.

"I don't see how, the only place I see progress is in the piles of dead corpse worshipers." This elicited a murmur of agreement from some of the other traitor guard in the chimera. The not priest sighed and shook his hands in the air in front of him.

"Ah, yes killing them is progress for certain," He paused as if for dramatic effect. "But what if we could convince them all to join us?" This elicited another murmur of agreement from the various cultists sharing the chimera with the soldiers. The ex-guardsman shook his head again and glanced to his right. Edsin watched his eyes light up as he noticed that he was awake.

"Ah," He said loud enough to grab everyone's attention once more. "Perhaps our sergeant here can share his experienced opinion." The cultists and traitor guardsmen seemed to accept this and Edsin noticed that all eyes in the vehicle were now on him. He opened his mouth, licked his dry lips, cleared his throat-

"Both of you. Shut the fuck up."

~/~/~

They had done as he said and now not five minutes later the compartment was mostly silent again. Not that Chimera's were quiet vehicles, and this one's engine was literally chaos, but at least he could think even if he couldn't sleep.

His first thoughts were of his current situation. He racked his mind for the name of the world he was on. He remembered being briefed about the planet while still in orbit with the rest of his old regiment, but he just couldn't remember the name. He decided to move on with the thought anyway. His regiment, the 148th Viliek, had been nearly destroyed laying siege to some hive he couldn't remember the name of. It'd been full of traitors, though. He remembered that. He yawned, all the details escaped him. It'd been brutal and progress was slow, or most days, nonexistent, that he could remember. A Krieg engineer regiment had finally tunneled into the hive then…something had happened. He frowned. Most of it he hadn't given any thought to but this had been a big deal. 'What was it?' He thought. Part of him wished he'd tried to remember, part of him reminded him he didn't care. 'Oh, right…the Word Bearers showed up.'

He frowned again, uncomfortable with the images that brought to mind and put it all from his head. 'Better to just focus on the present task.' He thought sitting up straight in his seat. With that he started the familiar process of check his gear to put his mind at ease. He looked down at his armor: Cadian style carapace. His home world had never been that creative and had copped the Cadian designs for nearly all of their equipment. It was black, the standard shock trooper armor color, and had a score of ware and scratch marks across it that showed the silver metal beneath the paint. Although he could now modify his equipment without fear of being shot, Edsin hadn't added anything to the armor, (though he'd lost his helmet somewhere), aside from scratching a chaos sigil over the Imperial Aquila. Unlike some he hadn't pledged himself to any one chaos god, preferring instead to remain undivided. Seeing that his armor was in serviceable condition, he moved onto his weapons.

First his hellgun, another shock trooper standard, he had had this weapon since he had been inducted into the Shock. Almost three years now and counting. A dozen superficial nicks along the weapon and it still worked fine. Edsin observed that the weapon hadn't gotten any dirtier since he'd cleaned it that morning, that the cable connecting it to the power pack on his back was undamaged, and that the power pack itself was still capable of holding a charge. Then he reached around his back and unhooked his chainsword from where it was strapped to his power pack. Holding it in his hands he saw that it was still clean, or rather free of any meaty chunks, and some of the oil on the chains glistened in the chimera's dim lights. Edsin reattached his chainsword to the power pack and felt he was ready for anything. Fortunate, for in the next few seconds he would be glad for that.

The Chimera had hit the ground before Edsin realized that they were flying. The metal box rolled along the ground and came to a stop on its side. To Edsin, it seemed like he was now strapped to the vehicles ceiling instead of the side. He let out a grunt of pain from the roll and looked around the inside. The traitor guardsman sitting in front of him had his neck bent at an unnatural angle and a vacant look in his eyes. Looking further into the compartment, he saw where an unbuckled cultist had been thrown around the compartment and cracked open his head on an empty seat. Edsin did a quick check of his equipment to be sure he had everything and then began unfastening his straps. There was a chorus of groans from the other passengers and Edsin shot them a look.

"Wake-up you warp dogs." He called to the rest of the troop compartment. "It's time to leave." He found the release and freed himself from the ceiling. The Traitor-Sergeant landed on the chest of the dead soldier. Pushing himself past the rest of the traitors as they began following his orders and fussed with their own restraints. Without a glance back to see if anyone was behind him Traitor-Sergeant Edsin pressed the rune for the ramp and metal wall sung open to reveal the snow covered world.

As he took his first steps onto the battlefield Edsin noticed two things. The first was that the chimera was a good fifty meters away from the rest of the convoy on the road, and it looked as if something had thrown it there. The second thing he noticed was that he was being shot at. Edsin dove to his left and rolled behind the cover provided by the overturned vehicle and reassessed the situation. Behind him was the road with the rest of the convoy, mostly chimera's their weapons had traversed to return fire. Behind them was a solid rock face. Edsin peeked around the side of the chimera to try to see his enemy. Ahead of him was a ruined manufactorium. At first glance, nothing within was visible but as Edsin watched he couldn't help to notice a score of red beams of all sizes lance out of every crack of the ruin.

'It's an ambush.' The traitor-sergeant realized as he watched the rest of the rabble clamber out of the chimera. He recognized the not priest and watched as an auto cannon detonated into the man's neck, exploding the windpipe and separating the head from the chaos loving body. More auto rounds found the rest of the traitors before any could find any cover and Edsin sighed and ducked back behind cover. 'I guess they wouldn't have been any help anyway.' He thought. 'But now how do I get out of this?' A glance back to the convoy told him that the other chimeras were off loading their troops and a pair of sentinels was advancing towards the manufactorium. In near perfect unison, a pair of missiles shot out from separate windows and smashed into the cockpit of one of the walkers sending it flying off of the legs. Edsin frowned. 'Well, that explains what happened to my chimera.' He thought. 'They're using frag rounds to attack vehicles.' Those rounds were meant to hit troops, not armor. They'd do nothing but push the vehicles. It didn't surprise Edsin at all. He remembered just how good Imperial supply lines weren't. Edsin looked back at the building. 'There's got to be a way to-' His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of whistles from ahead of him. Edsin groaned. He knew what that meant.

Ahead of him a line of Guardsmen stood from where they'd been laying prone. They were too many to count and they all broke into a run. One part of Edsin's mind told him that this was, in fact a perfect ambush. The other part told him that given the distance of the Chimera he was behind the Imperials would reach him sooner than his allies would. Edsin holstered his hellgun, drew his chainsword, and tried to make himself as flat as he could against the tipped vehicle. Then he waited. All around him the sounds of the battle grew louder, and he could see his traitor allies running towards him. A mob of cultists, traitor guard, and the occasional mutant. All yelling and shooting their weapons as they went. Edsin could hear the yells of the corpse worshippers behind him getting louder as they approached. Then Edsin saw the first green flak armor run past the Chimera. The Guardsman was too focused on the enemy ahead of him to check for anyone behind the vehicle. Then another dashed past him. And another. And another until he was in the mist of them. Edsin pressed the activation rune for his chainsword and lunged at the closest guardsman, hacking off his right arm. The Guardsman dropped his lasgun, and looked down at the weapon, confused as to why he had dropped it. His gaze went from the ground, to what was left of his arm, to his right just in time to see the traitor in black carapace slice his head off.

The attack hadn't gone unnoticed, but that was the idea. To draw attention to himself. Edsin swung his right arm, with the chainsword, in a wide swipe, cutting into the back of the legs of three men as the turned to face him, dropping them instantly. With his left he grabbed the collar of another guardsman, this one surprised at this traitor's sudden appearance and frozen in fear. Edsin dragged the scared man towards him as the guardsman's face contorted in fear.

"No, no, please no. I…I surrender!" No sooner had he spoke those words then the man's head exploded, sending fleshy bits in Edsin's face. Edsin blinked in surprise. His allies had only just reached the front of the loyalists; none of them could have hit this man. At that moment Edsin heard the hungry roar from another chainsword and realized who had shot this man as he tried to surrender. Edsin pulled the headless body close to him and used it to catch the other bolter rounds coming towards him. Holding his makeshift shield in front of him, Edsin charged in the direction of the fire. As he ran through the mob of guardsmen, he could feel the multiple impacts of the bolt rounds as well as the bodies of other, living loyalists as they charged past. Edsin reached his attacker and pushed the body into him.

The Commissar was visibly pushed back. He staggered backwards as he pushed the headless body off of him. He raised his bolt pistol to kill the traitor, but the heretic was gone. The officer narrowed his eyes and beginning scanning for black armor in the green.

"Heretical coward!" He said looking left. "Using the body of another loyal man as a shield," He looked right. "I will make you awns-" A hand shot up and grabbed the commissar's left wrist and, in a practiced move both combatants knew of, applied pressure with his thumb, and twisted his own wrist. The disarming technique was well named and the bolt pistol flew out of the commissar's hand. With a snarl the commissar kicked out and was rewarded with a solid impact on the traitor. The black carapace went rolling away and stood even as the political officer reactivated his chainsword.

The commissar and Edsin both charged at each other and their chainswords met in a shower of sparks and ear-wrenching noise. The commissar put both hands on his weapon and began forcing the tip of his chainsword towards Edsin's face. Edsin, for his part only held his with his right, and was slowly being overpowered. As the chainswords tip neared his face, the commissar began to smile. Edsin drew his left hand back. The commissar saw too late the fist coming for his jaw. The older man fell backwards and Edsin lunged after him. Their chains met again, but this time Edsin was putting all of the pressure into the attack and was dipping the tip of his weapon closer and closer to the Commissar's face. Then, slowly, very slowly it cut into his face. Through his skin. Into his skull. And into the brain. The body went limp and Edsin relaxed. He took a deep breath and removed his chainsword from the man's skull and noted that nearly half of the blades had been chipped in their exchange. Then he heard two sounds.

The first was the sound of the guardsmen around him turning their collective selector switches on their lasguns as they realized he had killed their commissar. Edsin was completely surrounded. The second sound came four seconds later and was much more welcome.

"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" The words were spoken in a way that could not be described as natural. All the Guardsmen turned towards the sound with fear on their faces. No human voice could make a noise like that. Edsin smiled and reactivated his chainsword. The Chaos Marines had arrived

A/N: The Warhammer 40,000 series belongs to Games Workshop, and NOT me.

Looking for some feedback on this one, let me know what you all think.


	2. Chapter 2

With a final twist of his chainsword, the man's face contorted and the body went limp. As he removed his weapon from the man's chest Edsin noticed the chevrons on the man's armor and frowned; something about killing his opposite number didn't quite sit right with him.

'Maybe because that was me not so long ago.' He thought. A glance around told him that the battle was indeed over. Cries and chainaxes from the manufactorum still reached his ears, but the chaos marines would be done there soon. Bodies both green and red covered the snowy field all around him and he could see the steam begin to rise up out of the still warm corpses. A breeze picked up and with his adrenaline now leaving him Edsin felt the full force of the world's low temperature.

He flecked the larger chunks of meat from his chainsword and strapped it back down. Then he began doing the same thing that every other traitor with half their brain left did after a battle. Loot. Digging through his pouches Edsin saw that the sergeant he'd just killed hadn't had much on him he wanted. The only things worth taking being a pack of lho sticks and some water from his canteen. Edsin gulped it down and began picking through other bodies finding nothing else of interest, and making his way back towards the dead commissar.

"Heck of a kill there Sergeant." Edsin spun around to a man who was the very definition of a cultist. Unkempt hair an unnatural shade of purple complimented broken, pointed, and unsightly teeth. The heretical face the man had was completed by a large sigil tattoo reaching from his chin to his forehead. He wore no shirt to hide his lack of muscles, only a simple pair of pants, boots, and some looted web gear. A part of his mind noted the lack of the common trophy rack or septispike. The cultist smiled at him and Edsin immediately turned back around to loot the political officer. This was exactly the kind of person that he wanted nothing to do with.

He dug through the older man's greatcoat until he found what he was looking for in an interior pocket. Ungluent. He held up the small bottle and considered its value. In the Guard he needed only ask the supply sergeant to get some for his chainsword. Now he was lucky to find any. He placed it in an empty pouch in his own kit and turned around only to find himself face to face with the cultist.

"Ahh...what the fuck!" Edsin said taking a step back. The cultist was still smiling as he spoke.

"Just admiring your work sergeant." Edsin realized that the cultist was looking past him at the old imperial corpse. He shook his head and started to walk away. "Do you mind if I take something?" The traitor-sergeant didn't look back as he replied.

"You can do whatever you want." He walked until he had sufficiently distanced himself from the cultist and took a minute to survey the rest of the battlefield. The number of traitors told him that they had won by a larger margin than he thought. Or else they simply had that many more of them. Part of his mind wondered how so many had fit into all of their transports, another part told him he really didn't care. There were heretics by the dozens picking through the dead bodies now. Claiming weapons and trophies from the dead. The sergeant watched as a fight broke out between two cultists over something. He sighed as one pulled a stub pistol and shot the other. There obviously wasn't anything worthwhile left.

"Looks like everything worth taking has been claimed." Edsin nearly jumped at the cultist's sudden reappearance next to him. He saw that the man had taken the commissar's jacket, wearing it under the looted web gear. This close he noticed that the kit didn't have any ammunition pouches, only a collection of larger storage ones. Edsin looked back at the battlefield and nodded slowly.

"Yeah, looks like it." He said in a tone that invited no further conversation. The cultist opened his mouth again anyway when a superhuman voice interrupted

"FOLLOWERS OF CHAOS! SERVANTS OF THE DARK GODS! ALLIES OF ALL BREEDS!" The voice proclaimed in a volume Edsin usually attributed to vox casters. Both Edsin, the cultist, and the rest of the traitors turned to see the group of close combat marines returning from the manufactorium. Lead by a figure in red and black armor, adorned with skulls at the joints, and carrying a mace as big as a man and topped with a spiked chaos sigil. The figure wore no helmet and his bald head was an unholy tan with scars and sigils crossing over the no longer human features. The back of Edsin's mind told him those men were called Dark Apostles.

"Our victory over these fools pleases the gods." There was a cheer at this and the apostle let it die out before continuing. "But, our fight on this world is not yet over. More of the corpse-worshipping fools cower in the city to the east." The chaos chaplain smiled and raised his massive mace. "Let us bring them the destruction that they crave. Let us bring them the TRUTH!" A louder chorus of shouts and cheers rose from the chaos forces all over the field. "And I tell you that it will be THIS Host that will ensure not only this cities death, but the death of this entire world!" This elicited even more cheers from more traitors, including the cultist next to Edsin. "Now," The apostle continued. "Even though the slaves of the false emperor have destroyed a number of our vehicles, we still have the means to reach them." As if on cue, a pair of corrupted rhinos, previously at the end of the convoy, pulled up behind the marines. "Mount your vehicles then those of you that still can. As for the rest of you," He paused for dramatic effect. "Be honored to walk to our foe!" There were cheers this time as well, but also a mad rush as every heretic, cultist, and traitor guardsman ran for a seat in the remaining vehicles. Edsin only shook his head. Speeches were lost on him, but he could admire the way the apostle had tricked the unlucky cultists without a ride into happily walking whatever the distance it was to the Imperial hive.

Edsin made no move to try and get to the remaining chimeras. He only watched the marine's vehicles take the lead as the last the transports filled and their treads began moving. An odd mix of rhinos, chimeras, sentinels, and some civilian transports.

"Aren't you going to try to get a ride?" The cultist asked. Edsin looked over at the cultist and shook his head.

"No point." He said gravely and looking back at the departing vehicles. "They'll be full and long gone by the time I'd get there." The cultist shrugged.

"So then I guess we'll be honored to walk?" Edsin nodded slowly.

"Yeah I- wait _we_?" He said facing the cultist. The heretical man took a step back and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Uh…well…I was hoping I might accompany yo-"

'No." Edsin cut him off. He turned around and began walking towards the road.

"Hey sergeant I can help you." Edsin spun back around suddenly.

"How many guardsmen did you kill today?" He asked. The cultist froze with his mouth open then looked at the ground and stammered out a

"None…"

"Do you have a weapon?"

"…No"

"Can you fight at all?"

"Well…not really but-"

"Then the answer is no." Edsin started to walk away again as the cultist tried to suggest ways he could help. Edsin tuned him out. He hated walking. He hated any kind of exertion out of combat, and he tried to put that hate into his mind to block out the cultist's pleas. One sentence, however, did make it through. "What was that?" Edsin said spinning back around. The cultist made his way to him, looking silly in the dead commissar's jacket.

"I said that I can fix your chainsword. It looks like you lost some blades when you killed that commissar." Edsin glanced at the weapon on his back and considered the man's offer. "I can help you." He continued. "Cook, repair your weapons, carry things…anything. Just please let me come with you." It wasn't quite begging, Edsin realized. More like bartering than anything. The sergeant bit his lip and thought for a second before speaking.

"Why?" The cultist shrugged.

"Because I really can't fight. If I were to try to take on even the weakest of our enemies, I'd die for sure." Edsin acknowledged the fact with a nod. "But I need to serve the dark gods somehow," The heretic continued. "and if I can help you to kill those enemies then I'll have done my part." Edsin bit his lip again and considered the man's words. Then, slowly he nodded.

"What's your name, cultist?" He asked.

"Irritus." Edsin nodded again.

'Well then Irritus, let's go. _We've_ got a long walk ahead of us."

A/N: The Warhammer 40,000 series belongs to Games Workshop, and NOT me.

Review?


	3. Chapter 3

"Ok, so here we are." Traitor sergeant Edsin pointed to a spot on Irritus' map. "Right next to the manufactorium and we need to go…" He trailed off and looked at Irritus. "Where do we need to go?" He asked. The cultist smiled his broken toothed grin that Edsin disliked already.

"Here" He pointed to an out of the way hive. "That's where the apostle instructed the whole Host to attack." Edsin looked at the name. Traxis. He didn't recognize it, or really care to, but made a point to remember the name. "Looks like our best bet is to follow this road." Irritus continued tracing a road with his finger. Edsin nodded and gaged the distance on the map to be at least a three day walk. He sighed, unhappy with the prospect of three days worth of exertion and made to leave when Irritus found something. "Humm, I thought that was on the other continent."

"Huh?" Edsin said looking back at the map. "What was on the other continent?" The cultist pointed to a point between their location and Traxis marked **O.M.L.** Edsin racked his mind for a possible meaning but came up empty.

"Our Martyred Lady." Irritus said guessing his thoughts. "A smaller convent of a large order of battle sisters. I wonder what became of them." Edsin shrugged. He didn't care. And he was cold.

"Let's get moving." The sergeant said. Edsin hated the cold.

~/~/~

CRACK!

Maria felt the sharp, shocking pain of the neural whip on her bare back. "Onward sinners!" The mistress of repentance yelled behind her. Maria grit her teeth and hefted her eviscerator chainsword.

'Two years.' She thought as she trudged through shin deep snow. 'Two throne-damned years I've been a repentia.' It was true. It had been just over two years ago that she had taken the oath of the repentia. Stripped of her rank, armor, and placed into a suicide squad to atone for her sins. At first she had embraced it. She had always had a fairly one track mind, the higher theories of her order on the Emperor and Chaos lost on her, and had focused on the enemy and her atonement. She flung herself at the enemy. Time after time she charged the enemy, hoping for absolution. But time after time, they failed to kill her. And worse each time when the mistress would declare who had atoned for their sins her name was never called. She had been forced to suffer the indignity while others came and went. When this war started she began to look for an opportunity to leave the Ecclesiarchy altogether.

"Foreword! Faith in the Emperor!" The Mistress cried.

"Faith, Faith unyielding!" The other repentia replied, not Maria though. She mouthed the words but had long ago stopped saying them. Her own faith had been faltering for nearly as long as she'd held the massive chainsword. In her opinion, the Emperor had forgotten her, so she had taken steps to forget him. She just needed an opening to get away now.

Their patrol had found a small group of the heretics and traitor guard they'd been fighting in this area since the Word Bearers had arrived in force months ago. The bolters of the other squads had routed them quickly, and it now fell on her single repentia squad to chase the survivors down and finish them off. They were unarmored and in many cases unarmed. Easy prey if they could close the distance. They fled into woods ahead and the sting of the neural whip on her back made her follow. Immediately she knew it was a bad idea. The trees were thick and the forest was dark. There could be anything in there.

~/~/~

"Hold up." Edsin said, bring his left fist up in the hand signal for halt by reflex. He pulled his hellgun out from its holster and listened. Irritus stopped as well and was silent for a moment but not hearing anything asked.

"What do you hear ser-?"

"Can it." Edsin said through his teeth and in the silence that followed both men heard the sound of chain weapons. "Get down." Edsin said in a volume barely above a whisper and pointing to a ditch on the side of the icy road. He and Irritus both dove into the ditch as a couple of cultists and traitor guard sprinted out of the wood line and ran across the road making for the woods on the other side. Seeing fellow cultists Irritus began to stand, but Edsin grabbed the collar of his looted jacket and pulled him back down. The heretic gave him a confused look but Edsin nodded back towards the woods.

Right where the traitors had come through a squad of women in rags and wielding massive chainswords burst through the woods. Irritus tried to make himself less noticeable, but Edsin watched to see what they would do. Unsurprisingly they started after the traitors they'd no doubt been pursuing. However they drifted a bit, coming to within thirty feet of where they lay.

'Not a big deal.' Edsin thought, 'We'll be fine as long as they don't-' his thoughts were interrupted by a savage war cry and for the second time that day Edsin realized he was in the wrong place in an ambush.

Red lasers shot out from every direction impacting all around and on the unarmored women. Deformed, multi-eyed, inhuman creatures charged out from where they'd been hiding as well. The women had walked into a rather well done ambush and Edsin and Irritus were between the two sides.

To Edsin's surprise and their credit they didn't scatter or break formation at all. Rather the women pulled into a circle then spread out and began slicing the mutants as they came towards them. Edsin noticed the armored figure in the center of their circle and it all clicked. These were some of the Battle Sisters. Edsin had only seen them in person once and though he couldn't remember when that was, he did remember that they were armed differently. For whatever reason they didn't have their bolters or their power armor Edsin couldn't guess, but to him that was just their luck. His position was relatively safe, and he was content to watch the ambush destroy the sisters. A handful of minutes passed, but except for two deaths they were still going strong. That wasn't right. He reassessed the squad. There were six of them still left, plus the armored one in the center. Edsin watched that one strike one of the others on the back with a whip and decided the she must be the leader. 'Probably using that whip to make sure that none of them run.' He thought. 'Smart.' Edsin decided that with that one still alive, whatever chaotic forces in the trees would be at this all day.

He looked next to him at Irritus. Edsin made eye contact, mouthed 'Stay here', and holstered his hellgun. Irritus only watched as Edsin unhooked his chainsword and stood in a crouch. The sergeant ran as fast as he could quietly. He needed to get as close to the armored leader as he could without being seen. However, since he was wearing armor painted black on a road covered in white he was spotted almost immediately. At twenty feet away the first sister announced his approach to the others. At fifteen feet Edsin broke into a sprint. At ten the sister raised her massive chainsword above her head. At five Edsin dropped to his knees and _slid_ along the icy road. Right past the woman and taking off a leg as he did. The woman fell over and Edsin stood and turned just in time to see moving blades coming at his face. He fell backwards and the eviscerator sailed over his head, coming close enough to take off some hair.

"Die heretic!" The woman screamed. Edsin reached out with his left and grabbed one of the wrists holding the large chainsword. It was stronger than he expected and he realized that he couldn't disarm this opponent. Using the grip he had, the sergeant pulled himself up and found that he was now standing behind the rag clothed woman. The move caught her off guard and Edsin used that time to get a stronger grip on her wrist and move his own chainsword to her neck. Fighting the sister for control, Edsin forced the eviscerator into another unarmored sisters side, cleaving her in half. His captive howled in a mixture of anger and furry and rocked her head back. The move nocked the back of her skull into the front of Edsin's and he fell backwards. Reactivating his weapon as he fell back, the chainsword gouged into the sisters neck and became lodged there as the body fell on him. The fall stunned Edsin for a moment and the now lifeless body pinned him to the snowy ground. As his head cleared, he saw the armored sister approaching him.

Immediately his adrenaline shocked him back to focus, and he tried to pull his chainsword from the dead woman's neck. It was stuck in the neck meat good. He tried activating it but the weapon had broken there. The leader was upon him now and Edsin went to draw his hellgun. He almost had it out of the holster when he felt a cold round shape on his forehead.

"Don't move heretic." She commanded. Edsin froze. The only thing that moved was his pupils as they looked up at his soon to be killer. She had an icy smile on her face and Edsin saw her raise the neural whip above her head. "Atone for your sins!" She cried. "I will make you suffer before I end yo- AAAHHH!" She began to convulse and blood began to flow from her mouth. Edsin didn't understand what had caused her to convulse, then he saw the tip of an eviscerator cutting from above the sister's right shoulder. The moving blades went through her chest and exited at the opposite hip. As the halves fell away Edsin saw his savior.

She looked exactly like the other unarmored sisters save for a few subtle differences. Her hair was longer than the others, her rags seemed somewhat older, and most noticeably, her face had a massive smile on it.

"Thanks!" She said, still smiling. "I've been waiting for something like you to distract her for a while now."

~/~/~

With their leader dead the rest of the sisters lost their fervor and began to make mistakes. It was only a matter of minutes before they were all dead. All except for the one who had killed the leader. As Edsin rolled the body off himself, he noticed an outstretched hand from that sister.

"Thanks." He said letting her help him up. As he stood, he saw Irritus running up from the ditch.

"Um, Sergeant?" He said, keeping his voice low and looking at the sister. "You know that this is a-

"Maria." The woman but in, her tone a bit louder than Edsin thought she intended. "Sister, uh… _former_ sister repentia." She held out her hand. Neither man took it. "You two must be…Heretics?" She said perhaps too eagerly.

"He is I'm just a traitor." Edsin said with a nod to Irritus, who for his own part said nothing but eyed the woman with suspicion. Edsin opened his mouth to continue when a sound he hadn't heard in seven years stopped him. It took him a moment to place it and when he did it only raised more questions. The group turned to see another group coming out of the woods, the leader of which was clapping.

"Well done there sergeant! Most impressive." The leader, Edsin guessed, was a tall, skinny man dressed in what once had likely been the clothing of the planets nobility. His neck bore an odd blue squiggly line tattoo and Edsin recognized it as something chaos related but he couldn't quite remember just what.

'Probably not too important,' Edsin thought, 'Though he might not be undivided like us, so that might mean something.' The noble was not a soldier in any sense of the word, but his companions very much were. There were about two dozen of them all armed with lasguns and wearing blue flack armor. Edsin noticed that many sported the blue tattoos as well.

"Well done indeed." The noble continued, "I must say _I_ thought I'd planned that right out, but _you_ took it a step further. Using my ambush and this woman to your advantage and having planned it all along. Very impressive sergeant." Edsin didn't understand any of what the man was saying, but given the number of armed men he had behind him he thought it smart to nod. The noble poked one of the dead sisters with his boot. "You wouldn't believe the trouble these bitches have been giving us. Even before the war, they were a constant pain in my side." He paused and cocked his head to one side. "Tell me, are you with those Word Bearers that made planet fall a few months ago?" Edsin nodded.

"We are." The noble nodded as well.

"I see," The man paused. "Under which apostle, if I might ask?" Edsin hesitated at this having not bothered to remember the chaos marine's name.

"The Dark Apostle Farthas." Irritus spoke up. The Noble bit his lip and seemed to be searching his mind for something.

"Farthas's host…the last I heard you were heading to hive Traxis. Is that right?" Edsin knew better than to discuss troop movements with people he'd just met in the woods.

"It may be." He said plainly. The noble smiled and began to chuckle.

"Ah, making more plans I see." He glanced behind him at his men. "Well, _we_ have some business to take care of, but we'll be heading to hive Traxis ourselves. Perhaps we'll meet again sergeant." Edsin nodded.

"Perhaps so." The nobles smile grew wider.

"Plan on it." And with that the entire group turned around and began walking back into the forest. After they disappeared from sight Edsin relaxed and Irritus did so visibly.

"That could have gone really bad." The cultist observed.

"Yeah." Edsin said trying to remember just what the tattoo might mean. As before, he concluded that it probably wasn't important.

"Ahem." Edsin and Irritus both turned to see that the sister was still standing there. "So you two are with the Word Bearers then." It was a statement not a question and neither man tried to deny it. "I don't suppose that their…recruiting right now are they?" Irritus frowned and opened his mouth but Edsin spoke up first.

"Why?" It was the same question he'd asked Irritus and the cultist noticed. The sister only shrugged.

"I still want my revenge for the indignity I've been forced to suffer last two years." She pointed to the armored sister. "This is a good start, but I want more and I can't do that alone." She hefted her large chainsword. "I've spent my life in the Soroitas and killed more heretics than I can count. I don't really know much about chaos. I was only taught that their sworn enemy of the Imperium and the Ecclesiarchy." She smiled. "Right now, that sounds like something I want to be a part of." Neither man said anything for a long moment. Irritus looked from Edsin to the sister and back to Edsin. Finally the traitor-sergeant spoke.

"What was your name again?" He asked. The ex-sister smiled more.

"Maria." Edsin nodded.

"Well, Maria, you better see if you can find something warmer to wear. We've got a long walk to hive Traxis." She kept smiling and began looking through the bodies on the ground around them. When she was out of earshot Irritus leaned closer to him.

"Are you sure about this Sergeant? She was one of the battle sisters. Their more faithful than the space marines plus this one doesn't even really know anything about chaos." Edsin looked at him then walked over to the nearest woman's corpse. Placing his boot on her head he ripped his chainsword out of her neck and pushed it into Irritus' hands.

"Time for you to make good on that promise."


	4. Chapter 4

"Ok, you've lost me. Start over from the beginning." Edsin could hear Irritus sigh behind him as the three of them walked down the snow covered road. Edsin in front by a few paces, Irritus and Maria behind him. Behind them the sun was already setting and the snow covered world became colder with each passing moment. All three traitors knew that they would need to find shelter soon.

"Alright fine, but try to pay attention this time." Another sigh. "There are four main aspects of Chaos. They are personified by four gods-"

"Wait, stop." The ex-sister interjected. "Four gods? You guys all worship four gods?"

"Well, the sergeant and I do. As well as most of the Word Bearers, but some choose to worship one god solely." Irritus explained.

"Why's that?" Maria asked tugging at the collar of the sweater she now wore. She'd taken some blue PDF style pants and a sweater off one of the dead traitors at the ambush, but Edsin got the feeling she hadn't worn this much clothing in a long time. The sergeant tilted his head to the side to hear the answer to her question.

"It's different for everyone. For some they feel that the sole worship of one god will confer the gifts of that god. For others, service of one god happens to align well with their intentions." There was silence for a moment as the woman took in the cultists words, then.

"Then why are you two, what did you call it…undivided?" Irritus cleared his throat.

"Well, I like to see all the aspects of chaos as parts of a whole. All working together towards one goal. In this way, they combine to become one thing. One undivided force." Edsin snorted and glanced back.

"Just remember." He said over his shoulder. "Some of those aspects of yours don't always work together so nice." This prompted a question that the sergeant really wasn't ready for.

"So why are you undivided sergeant?" Edsin nearly tripped over a patch of ice on the road at the question. Irritus looked at Edsin, curious as to his motivations as well. Edsin searched his mind for an answer as they came around a turn.

"Well I…" He trailed off and froze. Behind him Irritus frowned and spoke up.

"You wha-" Maria cut him off with a shake of her head and pointed to the trees ahead. He didn't see it at first, but after a moment he noticed a thin trail of smoke coming out of the trees. Somewhere ahead, there was an Imperial vehicle running.

~/~/~

Guardsman Alain was understandably nervous. He was a good soldier and though he wasn't a corporal yet, he had shown real promise. He was faithful and had never doubted in the Emperor or the Imperium, so had never considered the possibility that he could become 'touched.' It had been subtle at first. He'd been able to guess his squad leaders orders before he'd even given them. That had only been helpful and anyone who noticed had only attributed it to good unit cohesion. Then the headaches started. Every time he met the traitor forces in battle he would feel pressure inside his head. At first it had been nothing more than a minor annoyance. Each time the headaches returned however they came back stronger. Then there were the voices. Only whispers at night but like the headaches they turned into screams the closer he got the Chaos forces. All of these however he was able to conceal from his comrades. It was something far more obvious that had landed him where he was now.

He hadn't intended for his lasgun to malfunction as the traitor guardsmen charged his position. He hadn't known that one would jump into the trench next to him and try to cleave him open with a bloody butcher's tool. And he hadn't known when he raised his hands in front of him in a panic that the traitor would burst into flame.

Psyker. The word echoed from the lips of his squad mates all the way up to his company commander. And all the way back down as well. During a less turbulent time the black ships as would come for him and take him off to Emperor knows where. But since they were in a war with the ruinous powers themselves Alain found himself tied to a tree and looking down the barrels of a half dozen lasguns. Understandably he was nervous.

~/~/~

"What do you see?" Edsin asked Irritus. The cultist lowered his binos he'd looted somewhere and passed them to the sergeant.

"Take a look." He said. The three traitors were lying prone on a hill overlooking a small clearing in the woods. Edsin focused the binos to his eyes and took in the scene. There were eight guardsmen. Six were in a firing line, one was directing them, and one was tied to the tree they were aiming at. "Another traitor like ourselves perhaps?" Irritus guessed a little too hopefully. Edsin grunted and looked for the reason they'd come here. Behind the guardsmen was their transport: a guard chimera. The vehicle was running but there didn't seem to be anybody in it. Edsin hated walking, and a ride was a prize worth fighting these men outnumbered for.

He handed the binos back to Irritus and the three started to crawl backwards and out of sight in case the imperials looked up. When he was out of sight he shifted to a knee and began drawing in the dirt.

"Ok, here's how we'll do it."

~/~/~

"For the unsanctioned exercising of witchcraft and failure to report demonic taint, both acts of heresy against the Emperor," Alain's former squad leader went on. "You are sentenced to death by firing squad. May the Emperor have mercy on your soul." Alain swallowed hard as the sergeant stepped out of the way and the six lasguns of his squad mates all came up to point at him. "Ready." Alain heard the selector levers click. "Aim." Six left eyes closed and twelve hands tightened on their weapons. Alain closed his eyes "Fi-"A las weapon went off and the psyker tensed up expecting to face the Emperor any second. The scream that sounded, however, was not his and opening his eyes Alain saw one of his ex-squad mates on the ground twisting from a wound that had come through his gut as the other guardsmen spun around to face whatever threat was behind them. The psyker could see them scan the woods behind them trying in vain to discern where the attack had come from. The second attack came from a different angle than the first one, and was just as surprising. The controlled burst of las-fire cut into another man's chest and head. Despite his predicament, Alain noted the skill of the burst. The squad began to return fire but it was inaccurate and random. Wild shots in the hope of gaining fire superiority. He saw his squad leader shake his head and point to two of his soldiers.

'Ramaraz, Collins, we'll lay down suppressive fire you two get up there and take 'em out." The sergeant revived two affirmative nods. Two guardsmen and the NCO switched to rapid fire and sprayed the woods as the other two charged the woods.

'Classic tactics.' Alain thought, again forgetting that he was tied to a tree. He tried to move his arms what little he could when he felt something else pulling on the ropes.

"Quit moving, I can't untie you if you keep moving the ropes." Alain swallowed hard hearing the voice behind him. No servant of the Emperor would be untying him now, and on this world that left only one other option.

"Who are you?" He asked, feeling the ropes begin to slack. The voice gave a chuckle.

"A new friend, now tell me why were these fools about to kill you." Alain hesitated, unsure how smart it would be to tell whoever was behind him that he was a psyker so he changed the subject.

"Wait; are all the guys in the forest with you?" He said as he watched the two charging guardsmen reach the trees. Another chuckle and the ropes became slacked enough to sip off. Alain turned around to see a man with purple hair, a sigil tattooed onto his face, and smiling at him with broken teeth. Alain opened his mouth to speak, but the man pointed back at the trees.

No sooner had the guardsmen entered the woods than the sound of a chainsword cut over the din of las-fire. The first guardsman fell over head first as though his both legs had been cut out under him. The second tried to reach his friend, but something metal flashed and in an instant he was without his right arm. The man starred at the blood spurting stump and screamed until a second swipe took his head.

Alain was in disbelief and the sergeant cursed. As he went to reload, the incoming las-fire picked up and another man next to him was hit in the face. As this guardsman fell both Alain and the sergeant saw two figures dash out of the wood line. The first was a man in black carapace armor and wielding a hellgun. This man let off a burst of fire at the remaining guardsman and dove behind a stump for cover. The second was a woman, unarmored, dressed in blue, and wielding a massive chainsword. She screamed something unintelligible as she charged at the remaining Imperials. The last guardsman stood to try to shoot her but a well-aimed burst of red las-fire put him down.

The sergeant snarled and tossed his lasgun aside grabbing his own chainsword from his belt. The woman reached him and brought her chainsword above her head, making to bring it down on the sergeant's. The NCO brought his up to block the attack but the Eviscerator was far more powerful and after a brief struggle it cut through the smaller chain weapon. Alain watched the man in carapace make a run for the chimera and he remembered something. Something very important.

~/~/~

Seeing that Maria had the sergeant occupied Edsin broke cover and ran for the chimera. The vehicle's engine was running, but since in hadn't moved in the fight yet Edsin was fairly certain that it was empty. As he closed to within ten feet, however he found out he was wrong. The turret swiveled to look at him and Edsin found himself starring down the barrel of a multi-laser. This was it; there was no way to avoid this attack. The chimera had him dead to rights and Edsin didn't try to dodge out of the way. Then something completely unexpected happened.

Rather than cut him apart with multiple lasers the turret of the chimera seemed to bulge. Edsin heard a high pitched scream and more bulges appeared on the front of the vehicle. With an explosive sound flames shot out of every opening and hatch in the chimera. The force of the blast knocked Edsin on his back and he hit his head on something.

Everything went black for a moment and there was a ringing in his ears. Slowly he opened his eyes and the world began to return in a haze. He shook his head and tried to stand, feeling a pair of arms reach under his armpits to help him up. Edsin shook his head again trying to clear it and the world snapped back to focus. Edsin could see clearly now all around him and he wasn't happy.

The first thing he saw was the burning chimera in front of him. The vehicle had flames flashing from both the driver's compartment and the turret as well as the new holes in between. He frowned, the vehicle was worthless now. The entire reason they'd attacked this squad wasted. Finding his balance, Edsin noticed that Irritus had been the one helping him up. Behind the cultist he saw Maria approach, a severed head wearing a sergeants vox headset in on hand. The dismembered body part seemed to clash with her outfit and uncertain expression. Edsin gave her an approving nod and noticed Irritus was motioning to his left.

Looking in that direction Edsin saw the guardsman who they'd seen tied to the tree. Without his armor or a weapon the young man looked almost frail. Nothing special about him in any… 'Wait' Edsin thought looking at the way his arms were outstretched. "You're kidding me." He said aloud. It all made sense now. You didn't need a firing squad to execute a traitor. You needed a firing squad to kill a psyker. Edsin shook his head in disbelief. "You're a fuckin' psyker." His tone made the question a statement but the unarmored guardsman tried to answer anyway.

"Well…I-I guess I am. I mean, I really don't know I-"

"Did you do that?" Edsin interrupted pointing at the burning vehicle.

"Well…y-yeah I guess I did…" The psyker stammered out. He paused for a moment then the force of it all hit him. "Oh sweet Emperor what have I become!" He said falling to his knees in front of Edsin. "I-I really am a psyker. I've been touched by the warp!" The man's eyes watered and tears began to slide down his face.

Edsin only looked at the self-realized psyker with an uncaring expression. Irritus bit his lip unsure of what to make of the crying man. Maria looked at him for a moment then nodded to herself. She dropped the head and walked next to the kneeling man. He looked up to see her place her eviscerator above his neck.

"I will grant you absolution psyker." She said in a tone that Edsin thought seemed practiced.

"Hey, hey wait." Irritus said as he ran over and grabbed the handle of her chainsword. "I know you're used to the sororitas treatment of psykers, but things are a little different on this side of the warp." He made eye contact. "Here 'touched' isn't 'taint', and it's a good thing." Maria shook her head.

"We have no need for him," She tried to shake his grip. "Let me give him the absolution I was denied." Irritus gripped the weapon even tighter.

"He is blessed by the dark gods and-"

"Ahem" Both traitors snapped their heads left to look at Edsin. The sergeant was holstering his hellgun with one hand and pointing to the psyker still kneeling below them with the other. They both looked down to see that the former guardsman had fainted beneath them. Slowly Irritus let go of the chainsword and Maria removed it from above the man's neck. Both of them looked embarrassed. "It's getting dark. Since our new friend torched our ride, we'll have to spend the night here." The two traitors nodded and glanced around the clearing. "See if you can find anything useful."

~/~/~

As luck had it, or in Edsin's opinion didn't, the guardsmen hadn't had much on them. The entire front of the chimera to the turret had been burned from the inside out. Melting just enough of the engine and weapons to make it completely useless as a transport. Fortunately the troop compartment was mostly intact. After Edsin had helped Irritus climb up onto the top of the vehicle, he'd been able to climb through the hole and lower the ramp.

Inside the three found that although it was partly charred and smelt of the man who'd been incinerated there, it would be adequate shelter for the night. Irritus started a small fire inside below the hole in the turret. He then dug through the supplies stored behind and beneath the seats, finding a box of ration bars for their dinner. Melting some snow for water, he made a simple meal as Maria and Edsin cleaned their weapons. Neither Irritus nor Maria seemed to want to say anything to one another or at all, both of which suited Edsin fine. The food was poor and Edsin remembered another reason he'd left the guard.

The sun had dropped below the horizon by the time they'd finished eating and Irritus and Maria laid down along the floor of the vehicle to sleep as Edsin took a seat next to the open ramp. The second to last thing he wanted right now was to stay up all night and guard his companions, but the last thing he wanted was to die in his sleep. If someone did try to sneak up on them, Irritus would be dead before he even knew it and Maria would run off and try to take them on herself rather than wake him to help.

He sighed and pulled out the pack of lho sticks from earlier, finding them mostly crushed. With a frown he lit one of the more intact ones in the fire and took a draw. As he did he saw the limp form of the psyker from earlier who they'd left passed out and kneeling in the snow. Edsin had completely forgotten about him. All at once he sat up straight, eyes wide and grabbed his head. The psyker was shaking and Edsin saw blood begin to trail from the corners of his eyes. He took another drag and realized that the man was about to scream. He leaned back and opened his mouth-

"KUNK"

The psyker snapped his head to the side to see Edsin's foot strike the side of the chimera. The sound brought him back to reality and he noticed it was night.

"D-did I…" Edsin's nod answered the obvious question. "I-I guess I was out a while huh." Edsin shrugged and took another drag. The psyker glanced around and liked his lips. "I, uh…I don't suppose that, uh, that you've anything to…to drink, do you?" Edsin starred at him for a few seconds, then reached into the chimera and held up Irritus' canteen. The ex-guardsman hesitated for a moment then walked up to the vehicle and took a seat opposite Edsin. The sergeant handed him the canteen and took a good look at the man. He looked fairly standard as far as guardsmen went. Some muscle, but not much. Shaved blonde hair and green eyes sat on a young but somewhat experienced face.

"Is this your first war?" Edsin asked. The psyker shook his head and swallowed the water in his mouth.

"Second. First was on..." He paused to think. "Loathenr. We were fighting orks." Edsin nodded, he'd faced orks a few times in his career and he probably would again. The psyker seemed more at ease and wiped the blood from his cheeks on his sleeve.

"So…what now?" He asked. Edsin raised an eyebrow.

"Now? Now you can do whatever you want." He took a final drag on the lho stick and tossed the butt in the snow. "Though I think you might no longer be welcome in the guard." The psyker nodded gravely and licked his lips again.

"Yeah…I uh, I don't-"

"You want to come with me?" Edsin cut in. The psyker was caught off guard, mouth agape and blinked once in confusion.

"Uh, how did you know I'd ask that?" Edsin shrugged and motioned to the others asleep in the chimera.

"Lot a people been asking that lately. What's your name?" The psyker hesitated for a second before speaking.

"Alain. Trooper first class, er…well just Alain now." Edsin nodded but said nothing. "So can I c-"

"You still remember how to pull guard Alain?" Again Edsin had surprised him, but after a second the ex-guardsman nodded. Edsin unhooked a lasgun from where it'd been strapped down in the troop compartment and pushed it into the man's hands. "Good, then you've got first watch." He sat back in the seat, tilted his head back, and covered his eyes with one arm. "Wake me up in four hours or if you hear anything. If I catch you asleep on guard I'll kill you. Sound good?"

"Yeah, but I-"

"Good." Edsin said twisting in the seat to be more comfortable. The psyker liked his lips again and looked at the lasgun, then at the darkness outside, then back at the carapace armored traitor-sergeant.

"You don't mind being guarded by a psyker?" Alain waited for a response for a moment before a faint snoring sound told him the sergeant was asleep.

**A/N: Thanks to everybody who reviewed so far, it means a lot to know people like this. **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thanks again for the reviews everybody, keep letting me know what you all think**

Edsin slowly opened his eyes. He was looking up at a metal wall with rungs and hand holds set into it. It took him a moment to remember where he was, but as he sat up in his seat the previous day's activities came back to him. A glance around the burnt out chimera revealed that it was empty and daylight coming through the holes and open hatches told him it was morning. The fire had burnt itself out, but there was an ember bright enough to light another lho stick. No sooner had he inhaled some of the smoke than he heard someone chanting.

Edsin stepped out of the charred vehicle and saw Irritus kneeling on the ground a ways away. The cultist had drawn a sigil in the snow and had dragged the guardsmen's bodies up to it, placing one corpse at each point and the headless sergeant in the center. The cultist was busy chanting to himself, hands together, eyes closed. Edsin guessed it was some sort of sacrifice and considered asking him about it but decided he really didn't care.

Behind the cultist, Edsin saw Maria come out of the woods with a number of canteens in her arms. She paused, seeing Irritus chanting to himself and set the canteens down. She took a deep breath, walked over, and knelt down next to him.

~/~/~

Irritus continued chanting for a moment before a feeling that told him he wasn't alone caused him to trail off. He opened his eyes and looked to his right to see Maria there. She was kneeling like he was but seemed uncertain as to what to do with her hands.

"Here," He said reaching over to move her hands out of the Sortias arched prayer position and into a more relaxed one. "Like this." He let go and she nodded slowly.

"Uh, thanks." She paused for a moment. "I'm…sorry about yesterday. It's just all my experiences with psykers has always involved killing them and…" Irritus shook his head.

"You wouldn't have known…couldn't have known the way the Ecclesiarchy brainwashes you guys." She nodded slightly.

"I…guess so." Her gaze shifted to the bodies Irritus had arranged. "So…what's all this for?" Irritus looked back at her and spoke with a note of enthusiasm in his words.

"It's an offering." He said happily. "I'm offering up the bodies of these corpse worshipers to the dark gods. Normally you need a few more people to do an offering but…" He trailed off and his voice took on a more nervous tone. "I don't suppose you'd…maybe…want to help me?" Maria looked at him, then at the bodies, then smiled back at him and nodded.

"Sure."

~/~/~

With a long drag to extract the last of the life shorting essence of the lho stick Edsin breathed in the smoke and began dealing with the day ahead. They still had at least two days of walking ahead of them as well as whatever was waiting at Traxis. It would be a long walk he didn't want to do. He sighed and tossed the lho butt in the snow as Alain came out of the wood line wearing some kind backpack. The psyker noticed the sergeant and walked up to him a slight smile on his face.

"Good morning Sergeant." He said with more enthusiasm than Edsin remembered ever feeling himself. He nodded in reply and shifted his gaze to the ritual Irritus was conducting. The cultist had drawn Maria into helping him and Edsin could hear Irritus chanting and Maria trying to follow along. "Uh, Sergeant?" Edsin snapped his head back around to look at Alain.

Up close and in the daylight Edsin noticed a few things about the man that he hadn't before. First that he was noticeably taller than himself. If he cared enough to estimate he would have put him at just under two meters. He still had the lasgun he'd handed him the other night, but hadn't taken any armor from the dead loyalists. He only wore his guard uniform, but he'd undone ht collar and rolled up his sleeves.

"Too hot out?" Edsin asked, glancing down to see that there was still snow on the ground. Alain seemed taken aback but nodded awkwardly after a moment.

"Uh, yeah. Ever since I…" he motioned to the burnt-out chimera. "I've…just been burning up." Edsin was unsure if the psyker was making a joke or not and gave him a blank look. "A-anyway sergeant I was wondering. Where exactly are we going?" Edsin looked over Alain's shoulder at the ritual as he replied.

"A hive a couple days walk from here." The sigil Irritus had drawn in the ground began to glow a faint pink-purple. Alain nodded again.

"I…uh, I see. Well I was thinking. My old company's camped about five kilometers from here, but they'll be moving this way soon. They're a mechanized company so they'll have plenty of vehicles." Edsin looked back at the psyker.

"I don't have the confidence in any of you for us to take on an entire company." Edsin said bluntly. Alain nodded again and took off his backpack, showing the contents to the sergeant.

"I was my squads Vox operator." The psyker said. Edsin eyed the contents of the pack and both of his eyebrows went up.

~/~/~

"Verify that, they need us to what?" Captain Josef, commander of 3rd Company, 445th Assik Mechanized looked at his chimera's vox operator with a confused look on his face. The younger man nodded nervously and adjusted a dial on the communication equipment's panel to eliminate some static.

"Last calling station, please identify and repeat your last transmission, over." There was silence for a second before the vox clicked and a voice came over.

"445-3, this is FO 001857, you need to divert your course to the route at GB 00438 01551, over." The captain frowned at that. Why was a foreword observer telling them to adjust course? The operator glanced up at him and Josef nodded for him to ask the question.

"FO 001857, this is 445-3, why do we need to divert to that route, over." The response came back immediately.

"Artillery strike this morning. Earthshakers hit a traitor convoy ahead on your current route. Tore the road up so bad you couldn't get a baneblade over the craters they made. The route at GB 00438 01551 will take you through a forest but you'll get where you're going just as fast, over." The vox operator looked up at Josef and the captain bit his lip. Something about the situation just didn't feel right. He couldn't quite place it, but it was there nagging at him.

A glance at his chronometer told him that he didn't have time to think on feelings. The FO seemed legitimate and a company of chimeras couldn't navigate a destroyed road with any speed. Then there was the fact that he had orders from the regimental commander to be in position as soon as possible.

"Answer affirmative." He said, "Have him resend the coordinates and inform the platoon leaders about our course correction.

~/~/~

Traitor sergeant Edsin didn't hate climbing trees, but there was no enjoyment in doing it while wearing carapace. He steadied himself on the large branch he and Alain crouched on and glanced over at Irritus and Maria on another. Both branches stretched, like all the branches along the road, across the route. Turning his head so his left ear pointed down the road he listened for the tell-tale sound of burning prothenium. Several minutes when by and he only heard silence.

"Are you sure they bought it?" He asked the psyker. The taller man nodded and adjusted the bag which carried the vox caster he'd used to call his old commander.

"They'll be coming any minute now." He said with a nervous glance down the road. Edsin opened his mouth to say something back, when his ears picked up the faint sound of combustion.

"Here they come." He said in a whisper just loud enough to carry to the cultist and ex-sister. All four traitors crouched as low as they dared without losing their balance or grip on the branch and froze.

The sound of approaching vehicles got louder and louder but no one looked up at them. No one moved to avoid drawing attention to themselves. The noise got louder until suddenly one of the armored vehicles drove under them. This first vehicle, Edsin saw, was painted a mix of grey and white in an attempt to camouflage it in the snow covered environment. Its gunner was standing up in the hatch for a better look at the road, but neither he nor the multilaser on the turret was looking up. The vehicle passed and more followed it. Edsin counted off two platoons worth of vehicles before the noise began to quiet.

As slowly and as smoothly as he could manage, he turned his head to look down the road in the direction the loyalist vehicles had come. There were still a half dozen left in the convoy but he could see the end. With a glance to make sure his comrade's eyes were on him he held up his palm and made small circles with it. He'd taught them the 'get ready' hand signal only an hour ago, but everyone seemed to remember and began to lean off their branches.

Below the 4th to last vehicle passed them and Edsin took a deep breath. 3rd to last, he held it for a few seconds. 2nd to last, he exhaled and felt his muscles relax. Then he let go and fell.

~/~/~

Even though he was wearing carapace and had relaxed his body before falling, Edsin still hit the roof of the last chimera hard. Three other thuds told him that the other traitors had hit the vehicle as well. Edsin had landed next to the turret on the left side of the vehicle and a quick glance showed that Irritus and Maria had landed on top of the troop compartment while Alain was holding onto the heavy bolter on the front. He turned his head back to face the turret just in time to see the surprised Imperial gunner draw a laspistol from a shoulder holster.

The traitor sergeant's left hand shot out and grabbed the barrel of the pistol while his right grabbed the back brim of the gunner's helmet. In one motion he pulled the weapon away and slammed the gunner's head into the barrel of the turret's multilaser. The imperial head hit hard and bounced back dizzying the gunner, but the helmet took the impact and the gunner shook his head to clear it. Edsin took the chance to climb up the turret and move into a crouch. With a scream the gunner pulled off his helmet and swung it at Edsin missing the traitor's head by only a few inches. Edsin took a step back and the gunner began to climb out after him. As he did his foot caught the lever for the turret and the multilaser swung around and knocked Edsin's feet out from under him.

On his back again, A part of Edsin's mind wished that Irritus had finished up with his chainsword as the gunner stepped out of the turret and came at him with the helmet.

~/~/~

As he hit the chimera, Alain dropped his lasgun and scrambled for something to hold onto. His hands finally found purchase on the front mounted heavy bolter. Pulling himself up, he looked through an opening in the armor to see a pair of eyes staring back at him. The psyker realized he was looking at the driver. Immediately he felt the bolter shift and the back of his mind reminded him that the driver controls that weapon. He quickly grabbed the smoke grenade tubes above the driver's window as the bolter let off a burst. Using the tubes for balance, Alain pulled himself up so that he was even with the driver.

'Ok, ok…just like before.' He thought, pressing his right hand against the armor next to the window. He took a deep breath and pushed against the metal as hard as he could. At first nothing happened. Then, slowly he heard voices creep into his mind. He felt something else besides his hand pushing against the vehicle. And before his eyes, the metal began to glow red and his hand went through.

There was no mistaking what his hand grabbed when it went through the metal. As Alain's hand wrapped around the driver's neck he heard a high pitch scream. And as his hand burned through the neck completely, he felt the head roll down the man's body to sit on his lap. Alain smiled at the small victory, until he realized that the vehicle he was on no longer had a driver. Using the hole he'd made, Alain reached around until his hands found one of the levers for the twin tracks. Without any real idea of what it would do, he pulled back on it.

~/~/~

Abruptly the tracks on the right side of the vehicle stopped moving and started running the other way. The sudden motion was enough to throw the gunner off balance and cause him to fall next to Edsin. The sergeant wasted no time, swinging his armored forearm into the gunner's face and being rewarded with a loud crack. The gunner yelled in pain and grabbed his face as Edsin stood and kicked away the helmet. He grabbed the gunner by his collar and drug him over to the side. Realizing what was happening the imperial tried to stand, but Edsin pushed down on his head. Forcing it into the moving tracks. The body convulsed for a moment before going limp.

~/~/~

Landing at nearly the same time, Irritus and Maria hit the roof of the troop compartment. The ex-sister landing on her feet, Irritus less gracefully. Immediately, they went to work. Irritus regained his footing and began pulling the vox antenna from where it was mounted on the roof while Maria made her way to the back of the vehicle and leaned over. Using her massive chainword, she began to saw through the hinges on the vehicle's rear doors.

No sooner had she cut through the first then the vehicle abruptly turned and began going in a circle. She began to fall off the back when a hand grabbed her sweater's collar and pulled her back to safety. She turned around to see Irritus there, the now broken antenna in one hand the other still holding her collar.

~/~/~

Alain's one arm inside the vehicle fumbled around until he found what he was looking for; the combat lock for the driver's hatch. Releasing the lock, he pulled his arm out and opened the hatch. Immediately the headless driver's body tumbled out and onto the snowy road, disappearing under the moving vehicle. Alain watched it go before climbing into the seat and closing the hatch behind him. 'Ok,' He thought looking at the levers around him. 'Let's try this one.'

~/~/~

As he kicked the body off Edsin felt the vehicle lurch under him as the left side track now began to reverse direction and the chimera started moving back the way it'd come. He made his way to Maria and Irritus who were cutting the hinges off the rear doors. He came alongside and grabbed Irritus by the shoulder. The cultist looked at him and Edsin pointed to the front of the vehicle and made a cutting gesture. Irritus nodded and began moving that way. Maria on the other hand was nearly through and the sergeant drew his hellgun and pointed it down at the door. Then all at once the door came off, the vehicle stopped, and Edsin jumped down to face…

An empty compartment. Where he'd expected to find a dozen guardsmen, there were none. The only thing remotely human seemed to be a servitor sitting motionless near the gunner's station. Edsin simply starred at the inside for a moment as Alain and Irritus came around and Maria jumped down. The other traitors looked at him, then at the vehicle they'd captured, then back at Edsin. Finally Irritus opened his mouth to speak only to be cut off.

"Well," The traitor sergeant began. "Let's get this thing turned around. Hive Traxis is back that way."

~/~/~

An hour later Edsin found himself sitting in the back of the vehicle and considering taking a nap. They'd picked up the rest of the supplies they'd looted from the firing squad and now were on the road to the hive. Alain was back in the driver's seat with Maria up in the gunner's hatch and Irritus navigating for them. The sergeant glanced around the troop compartment when a loud beep caught his attention. He looked around for the source of the noise and realized it came from the servitor.

'No, wait…' He thought as he took a better look at the figure wearing a grey jumpsuit and with half a metal face. 'That's no servitor. That's a-'

"The Repairs have been completed!" The figure said happily. Suddenly animated it reached around its neck and unhooked a cable from a neural interface port in its neck. "It was not easy, but the machine spirit was most willing an-" It seemed to notice the man in front of him for the first time.

"Sergeant. You will be most happy to know that the repairs to this vehicle are now complete. I am ready to continue my service to the Imperium."

**A/N: Warhammer 40,000 is the property of Games Workshop and NOT me**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: How long has it been since I updated this? Too long to make you wait longer reading author's notes, but thanks for sticking with me anyway. **

In the space of a few seconds, Senior Tech-Adept Datave made a series of conclusions that would change his life. As his conscious left that of the chimera's machine spirit and returned to his own body both his flesh eye and forearm mounted auspex saw more humans in the vehicle than there had been earlier, and that they were not the same ones as before. He left his human brain to make the proper introductions and report his success while his cogitator began an assessment of the human before him. His flesh brain had already positively identified him as a sergeant, recognizing the three chevrons on his chest, while his cogitator noticed the black carapace armor and began to pull up any and all files he had stored on storm troopers. He didn't have much by the time he was done speaking and tried to find something else. Both eyes, flesh and mechanical, found something that caused him to pull up more files. A sigil with eight points was scratched onto the front of the armor.

Datave had several files stored in his cogitator related to that symbol. Said cogitator began to bring them up and autoread them, speeding through a small library of text in an instant. While he was still processing the information another program opened of its own violation.

It had been well over a half century since he'd swapped out a portion of his brain for the metal that was there now and although it had taken him time to get used to a program hadn't opened itself in over forty years. His first impulse was to dump it, but given the rarity of the occurrence he let it run to see what his brain thought was so important.

It was a memory file. A distant one from when he was still a new adapt and had hardly any metal in him. It had been the first time he'd repaired a vehicle, a basilisk mobile artillery piece he remembered. The repairs had been simple with him only needing to swap out a few worn treads. The guardsmen who operated the vehicle had remarked to him that this sort of problem 'happens all the time' and that had struck a note with him. He had stopped what he was doing and began showing them how to fix this simple problem so that they could do so themselves next time. Even without a cogitator he had been able to calculate an increase in efficiency if it didn't need to come back from the front lines for repairs as often. All of this he had indicated in his report. That had been a bad idea.

The sigil and an attached series of documents tried to open themselves, but he ignored them focusing instead on the memory. In the eyes of the Mechanicus he had committed a crime almost unspeakable. He had shared knowledge. He had found himself electrocuted, flogged, the guardsmen he'd taught mind scrubbed into servitors, and the time for him to accept the metal brain hastened. Hastened to the point that he was still conscious during the procedure. The pain of the event all came back to him and the sigil and files tried again to reopen themselves. He ignored them as the final bit of the memory came back to him. After it was all done his superiors had placed walls in his new mind that he was unaware of to block out these memories. To keep him in check. Keep him from ever teaching anyone ever again.

His human brain began to make him feel an emotion he hadn't felt in so long that it took him a micro second to place it, _anger_. It was foolish and they were fools. Knowledge shouldn't be horded. Not if they were to truly to rule the stars and avoid another dark age of technology and the techno-barbarianism that followed. He had seen it then and it had been blocked from him but no more. Free of the locks on his mind he could see that there was no hope for the Imperium of man if they could not be taught about and understand their own technology. The sigil appeared again and in anger Datave opened the attached file.

The file told him that the sigil was the symbol for chaos the hated archenemy of the Imperium for over ten thousand years. He read through the files in a matter of seconds and began coming to a conclusion. Where the Adeptus Mechanicus were highly dogmatized, those who had left to serve chaos had none of these constraints. They were free to dabble in whatever technology they felt. They could create new technology. They could teach.

That sealed the deal. Regardless of any other factors if those who opposed the Imperium could learn and teach others then they truly were the best hope for humanity. He didn't need his cogitator to make these conclusions or the one that came next. Logically he had to help in any way that he could. Starting with the traitor before him.

~/~/~

For a long minute Edsin could only stare at the techpriest. The man before him had gone silent after his initial greeting leaving the traitor sergeant to guess about him. He didn't look like any techpriest he'd ever seen. Instead of the red robes they were usually so fond of this one was wearing a grey jumpsuit, though he spotted an AdMech cog on the front. The cogboy was also lacking the servo arm that usually sprouted out of their back as well as any mechadendrites. The only parts on him that seemed metal were an arm and half of his face. Considering his words Edsin slowly reached over to the gunner's station and pulled out a laspistol from where it's been holstered there. He held the weapon at his side, keeping it aimed at the tech-priest. At last the human eye twitched and the mechanical one began telescoping.

"Sergeant," He began again as Edsin's grip tightened on the laspistol. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am senior tech-adept Datave," He flicked the selector lever off safe. "And I would like to join your organization." He smiled, or to be more correct half of his face did, the other half was non-moving metal. Edsin however was at a loss.

"You've got to be kidding me." He said shaking his head and setting down the laspistol. One of the cog's eyebrows went up in what would have been surprise on a regular face.

"I'm sorry sergeant?" Edsin rubbed his forehead.

"And just why is it that you would want to betray the Imperium, the Mechanicus, and humanity?" He asked. The tech-priest shook his head and held up his hands.

"I do not seek to betray humanity." He said with conviction. "I have recently deduced that the Imperium and Mechanicus will not be able to bring humanity forward as they currently are and are unlikely to ever change. Logically I seek to help their adversary in any way that I can." Edsin opened his mouth to reply, but the response never came. He closed his mouth shook his head and finally said.

"You said your name's Datave right?" The tech priest nodded enthusiastically. Edsin sighed, "Well, welcome to the Word Bearers."

~/~/~

From his vantage point in the governor's place a tall masked figure looked out over the encircled hive. Below in the massive city a quarter million guardsmen and a number of astartes sat about the defenses of the besieged hive.

Hive Traxis was the largest and oldest city on the planet and by association the capital of the snowy world. It was also the last major Imperial holding on the world. Recalling this information the figure sighed. 'It's a pity really.' It thought. 'A year ago when the initial insurrection happened I thought that this world might be easy to pacify. Then those Word Bearers had to show up and turn this into a major war.' With another sigh the figure reached into its pocket and pulled out a small rectangle with a trio of runes set into it. The being considered the device for a moment, then casually pressed one of the runes.

~/~/~

Standing in the gunner's hatch of the stolen chimera Edsin heard the siege of hive Traxis long before he saw it. Even over the noise of the engine he could pick out the sounds of earthshaker cannons, medusas, and griffons. Other different sounds he didn't recognize filled the air and only got louder as the closed the distance. As their vehicle came to the top of a large hill he got his first look at the besieged hive.

It was at once nothing like he expected and exactly like he thought it would be. He had been to more hives than he remembered and as many sieges of such, but this one was different in ways he'd hadn't thought of. It was big, as all hives are, but it seemed wider and shorter than any he'd ever seen. He could also see a massive grey wall all around the hive. Once serving to separate the hive from the outskirts it now seemed to be the only thing keeping the forces of chaos at bay. As they came down the hill he could see the encircling army and the different colored banners of different chaotic warbands that had set up camp in the ruins of the outer hive.

Speeding down the hill they passed burnt out wooden hab buildings, smashed ground cars, and collapsed smokestacks from a ruined manuactorium. Rounding this last building a pair of multi-legged spawn began keeping pace with their transport. At a word from Edsin, Alain turned the vehicle so that the left hand treads crushed the legs and tail of the lead spawn. Stopping it and discouraging the other from following. Two blocks latter they reached the traitor camp.

Edsin really didn't know what he had expected the traitor camp to be like, and though he had expected it to be chaotic he had expected to be somewhat organized. It very truly was not. Tents were set up wherever there was room and where there wasn't. Vehicles were parked the same way and he could see where another chimera had hit a basilisk and the drivers were standing on top of their vehicles arguing. More spawn clogged the street along with a number of cultists, traitor guard, and a few astartes. Unsurprisingly, Alain brought their vehicle to a halt.

"Uh, Sergeant," He said over the vehicle's internal vox. "Where should we park?" Edsin looked around at the various banners and signs in front of the tents and still standing buildings. Some proclaimed dinks, others weapons, and some only had a symbol or two in them. Looking back down into the vehicle, he saw Irritus talking to Maria while Datave seemed to be lost in thought. The sergeant shook the cultist's shoulder and got his attention.

"What's our banner look like?" He asked over the sound of their vehicles engine. The cultist smiled his broken toothed grin and spoke with his hands.

"A chaos star with a demon's head in the center sergeant." Edsin nodded and looked back at the scene before him, finding their banner hanging from a large building which might have once been a church. As they approached the tents and vehicles clustered around the stone building it was clear that any worship there no longer was for the emperor.

He was about to order them into an open space between a pair of Legion bikes and a rhino but at the glances from some of the marines guarding the church thought better of it and guided them around a corner and down a few blocks where he found a parking spot next a civilian groundcar crudely painted with sigils in seemingly random places.

The impromptu squad dismounted and all but Edsin looked around with eager eyes. After a second however they all turned to look at the sergeant. Edsin didn't notice their looks being more concerned with the location of the bar they'd passed.

"Sergeant?" Irritus said at length, breaking through Edsin's thoughts. The traitor sergeant shook his head and finally noticed his squad's looks for direction. He sighed and looked around as the cultist continued. "Should we try to find out what the battle plan is?" Looking up he noticed for the first time that the sun was dropping behind the towering hive. Snow was beginning to fall and all of the nearby groups of cultists and traitors were circled around burning barrels.

"Right now we'd better just get warm."

~/~/~

It didn't take long for Irritus and Maria to find some broken signs and wood to burn and it took less time for Alain to light it. Datave managed to convince the machine spirit to lock up the chimera so that no one would take it during the night but not before Edsin had pulled out the few sleeping bags strapped down inside. By the time they were all sitting around the fire the sun had set completely. The snow was still falling and somewhere in the distance an earthshaker battery began firing.

"This planet's too cold." Irritus said pulling the commissar's greatcoat tighter to himself. Edsin considered hitting the cultist. Partly for stating the obvious and partly because it might make him feel better. Before he could however Maria spoke up.

"It's always been a cold world." She muttered then noticed that she now had everyone's attention. "I mean ever since my…former order set up their covenant here there was evidence that this world is going through an ice age." Irritus and Datave nodded in an understanding manner while Alain and Edsin were visibly confused. One comment worked its way back to the front of Edsin's brain however.

"Wait. You're not from this world?" The sergeant asked with a gesture towards Irritus. He'd never asked, but he'd always figured Irritus had joined in with most of the world's civilian population. The cultist seemed confused and shook his head.

"No sergeant I joined this host when they came to my planet." He glanced up at the sky. "I think it was…nearly three years ago now." Alain cleared his throat.

"Was it like this?" The psyker asked gesturing to their surroundings. Irritus shook his head.

"No we were already fighting our own war against an ork invasion, but it was going bad." The cultist said still staring at the sky.

"What about the guard?" Edsin asked. Irritus shook his head and his tone changed.

"They never showed up." He paused and shifted his gaze to something behind Edsin. "Then at the last moment. When the remnants of the PDF were on the verge of collapse, they came." Edsin followed his gaze to the temple that the traitor marines were at. "At first we thought that they were Imperial space marines, but when demons began showing up we knew which side of the eye they were from." Alain and Maria both nodded but Datave spoke up for the first time that evening.

"And what exactly happened after they finished off the greenskins?" The heretek's voice turned the s into a z and part of Edsin wondered just what kind of augments Datave had, though as usual the other part that didn't really care won out. Irritus turned to look at the cyborg and smiled his large broken toothed grin.

"They brought us the Word." He said simply. He glanced around as though expecting his companions to say something before remembering that they were all fairly new to the Word Bearers. "That is, they brought us the truth of the Imperium and the galaxy. Of the glory and might of chaos. They only asked us for our world and our allegiance. We were all too happy to help." The group was speechless and only Alain responded with a simple.

"How about that…" After a moment Maria asked.

"So three years ago, what did you do before then?" Irritus turned to look at the woman sitting next to him, grin still on his face.

"Before I turned to chaos? I was a foreman at a refinery. We made the promethium for everything from chimeras to your chainsword." She smiled a little and asked.

"And you just left to join the warband?" Irritus nodded, broken teeth still visible in his smile.

"I did. Both me and my daughter did." At that everyone sitting around the fire failed to mask their surprise.

"You had a daughter?" Edsin asked.

"Have," The cultist corrected looking at Edsin. "Had a wife too, but one of those ork axes lobbed off her head."

"Why isn't you child with you?" Datave asked bluntly. The cultist only smiled more.

"She was on a different ship to come here. It never came out of the warp."

"And you're not worried about her?" Maria asked. Irritus shook his head.

"I believe the dark gods will take care of her." There was silence for a moment and then he said. "How about you. What were you before you turned to chaos?" Maria seemed surprised and possibly embarrassed at the question though Edsin noted that everyone's face was red from the glow of the fire.

"Well, before I became a repentia I was a sister superior for a retributor team." Seeing the blank stares the other traitors were giving her she clarified. "Um, a team leader for a heavy weapons team." This got through to the others and they all nodded in understanding.

"So then what happened? Why'd we find you out in the woods half naked and with an Eviscerator instead of a heavy bolter?" Edsin asked actually curious for the first time in months. Maria glanced down.

"I was sent into the repentia for…dereliction of duty." Everyone waited for her to elaborate, but the sister only starred into the fire.

"What happened?" Irritus asked in a soft voice. Maria swallowed.

"My sisters and I were camped for the night in a desert and my team was assigned guard. But they'd been walking through the desert all day and a couple could barely stand so I ordered them to sleep next to me while I stood watch alone so they could rest. I figured that if I saw anything I could wake them." She paused for a moment. "But I overestimated my own strength and fell asleep myself. And that was when the elder raiders attacked." She took another deep breath. "I awoke to the sounds of my sisters screams and watched as the xenos massacred them. We beat them off, but not before they had captured a number of my sisters. That morning I took the oath of the repentia and I've been carrying this chainsword ever since." She fingered the large weapon sitting in her lap and Irritus put an arm over her shoulder. Alain was the first to say something.

"Wow…that's…" Words failed the psyker and the ex-sister looked at him.

"Your turn." She said, moving the conversation along and away from her failure. "What were you before you turned traitor?" Alain snorted.

"A guardsman. Did some time in the PDF, got pressed into the guard when the regiment was formed, fought a war with orks before this one." He shook his head. "Nothing special."

"Until you started hearing voices in your head." Datave pointed out. The psyker looked at the cyborg.

"Pretty much." He said flatly. It occurred to Edsin that Alain probably wasn't too happy about his new 'gift'. "How about you cog? What were you before this afternoon?" Half of Datave's face, the human half, changed into a sort of frown.

"Well, I was inducted into the Mechanicus 76.43 years ago. I was selected to become a techpriest and as an adept I was attached to an artillery unit to service and repair their vehicles. After completing repairs on the first vehicle I took the time to instruct the crew on how to fix the problem. Because of this I was to remain and adapt for the rest of my career, have half my brain scooped out, and had locks placed in the cogitator that replaced it to keep me from ever teaching anyone again." He pointed to Edsin with his metal hand. "It was only when I saw the sigil on the sergeant here that I was able to break the locks and realize the truth." The entire group seemed to be at a loss and starred at the heretek blankly, though unlike Maria he didn't seem to notice. "I guess that just leaves you sergeant." Everyone turned to look at Edsin. As if on cue the earthshakers stopped their barrage and the only sound was the crackle of the fire. Edsin glanced up at the sky for a moment, and then looked back at the group.

"I think it's time to get some sleep." He said laying back and pulling the cover of his sleeping bag over him.

**A/N: As always thoughts, comments, observations, and reviews are always appreciated. Warhammer 40,000 is the property of Games Workshop and NOT me**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Long time no update. Been on vacation. **

Edsin awoke to the feeling that something wasn't quite right. That and the sound of sniffing near his feet. Slowly he pulled the cover of the sleeping bag from off his head, just enough to see a trio of knees bent backwards near his feet. An elongated muzzle came into view and the nose on the end sniffed at his feet again.

Slowly he reached out for his hellgun he'd placed next to his armor and boots a few feet away. His fingertips just touched it when heard a snarl followed by a loud crack. Edsin snatched up the weapon, flicked off the safety, and twisted to point it at...Datave.

The tech-adept was standing over a spawn with backwards bent legs. Edsin could see where the man's metal finger tips sparked with electricity. Edsin lowered his hellgun and began getting out of the sleeping bag.

"Second one tonight." The heretek muttered as he reached into Irritus's kit and took a ration bar. Edsin was occupied with the snow that had begun to cover him over the night but still made the connection.

"You've been up all night." Edsin said rather than asked. Datave nodded as he began unwrapping the ration.

"My body has not required sleep in 26.78 years." He said as though he was telling him their vehicle's total mileage. Edsin grabbed his boots and began putting them on. The sun was up but still low enough to cast long shadows.

"So you kept watch over us all night?" The heretek was chewing the ration now and nodded again.

"Another one tried to eat the cultist 2.43 hours ago." For reasons Edsin couldn't care to think about he chuckled at that. Boots on, he began strapping on his carapace and looked at the spawn the cog stood over.

"So you…shocked them?" Edsin asked. Datave took another large bite out of the ration bar and nodded as he swallowed.

"I have Luminen capacitors built in sergeant. They allow me to store and discharge electrical energy. I can also convert energy from food to electricity." Datave said and refocused on the bar. Part of Edsin's mind told him that was why the heretek had torn into the ration; the other was more concerned with the snow that had gotten into his boot.

He fastened the final strap on his armor and looked over at the rest of his 'squad'. Irritus, Maria, and Alain were all still asleep around the remains of the fire. He grabbed a handful of snow and tossed some at each.

"Wake up." He said as they all opened their eyes in surprise. "It's time to find out what's going on here."

~/~/~

Stepping into the tent that he'd seen the day before, traitor sergeant Edsin found that it was only covering the entrance to a partially collapsed bar. The bar was poorly lit and smelled of both urine and bad amasec. Part of the actual bar and the left side of the building had collapsed completely, leaving only a few booths, tables, and spaces at the bar. Said bar looked to have been constructed from some local trees and bore more than a few bolter scars and las burns. The few Imperial icons on the wall had all been removed, defaced, or turned into sigils. There were all kinds of life there as well. A mix of cultists, traitor guard, mutants, and even a pair of astartes sat in one of the booths. All in all, Edsin liked what he saw. Alain, however, looked less happy.

As the two former guardsmen walked into the bar the psyker was visible uncomfortable. They found a spot at the bar and after a moment a tusked mutant from behind the bar approached them asking.

"The Warp do 'ew want?"

"Something with alcohol in it." Edsin said then gestured to Alain. The psyker shook his head and began rubbing his temples. The mutant snorted.

"Ain't nothing for free. What'da ya got to trade?" Edsin checked the contents of his kit pouches. He still had the ungluent he'd looted a few days ago, the pack lho's, a few ration bars, and a lasgun power pack from the chimera. His own hellgun drew power from his backpack so he decided to part with the power pack. He set the weapon battery on the on the bar and the mutant grunted, took it, and wandered off to get the drink. One hand still in a pouch, he decided to take out an lho.

"Do you think you could?" He said holding the rolled up paper to the psyker. Alain looked at him blankly for a moment before realizing what he meant.

"Oh…yeah sure." He touched the end with his thumb and forefinger. The taller man starred at the lho and slowly the end he was touching began to glow red and smoke. Alain let go, sighed, and went back to rubbing his head. Edsin took a drag and considered the former vox operator. He still had his sleeves rolled up and his shirt collar was undone but the psyker still looked like he was burning up.

"Headache?" Edsin asked in the tone that made the word a question. Alain nodded and sighed.

"Yeah I…there getting worse." He said now rubbing his forehead. Edsin took another drag.

"Then stop fighting it." He said simply. Alain glared at the sergeant, but Edsin only shrugged. "From what Irritus says that's the only way to get anywhere on this side of the Eye." Alain frowned.

"You don't sergeant." The mutant came back with a cloudy glass of something amber colored. Edsin nodded to him and took the glass.

"I don't have voices in my head." He replied taking a drink. Part of Edsin recognized the taste, but the other part failed to remember what it tasted like. Alain sighed again and nodded.

"Maybe your right." He said as he stopped rubbing his head. The Psyker had more to say, and would have, had the sound of breaking glass not caught both man's attention.

"Such a plan as yours is not possible whelp." The superhuman voice of a traitor astartes was unmistakable. Edsin looked over at the booth with the two marines and saw that there were two more normal humans sitting with them. "You cannot honestly expect that Apostle Farthas would commit even one soldier to such an endeavor." Both marines stood and walked out of the bar, leaving the humans alone in the booth.

Edsin shook his head and went back to his drink, not noticing that the two from the booth had taken a spot at the bar next to Alain.

"Hey, a couple of amasecs over here." One of them called to the mutant. The second one shook his head.

"Can't believe they wouldn't even consider it." The first only shrugged. "It would have worked too." The second went on. Edsin was happily ignoring the heretics as they continued to talk and would have kept doing just that if Alain hadn't been a psyker.

"Aaah! Stop implying things! It's hard enough having to sift through your thoughts without you focusing on any one part." Both men looked at Alain in surprise, but the psyker only glared back. "You may as well just tell me what you're going on about and save me the headache." Edsin downed the last of the amber liquid and took a better look at the two next to Alain.

The first wore a tattered guard uniform. No armor, a lasgun slung over his back, and the numbers 045183 tattooed on his forehead. 'Penal Legion.' Edsin thought. The second wore a more intact uniform though it was not without a large sigil painted across the chest. He was missing an eye, but had grown a second pair below the first. "Yeah," Edsin chimed in "What did you propose that the astartes wouldn't hear?" The first glared at him for a moment, glanced at the second, then back to Edsin.

"Why do you think that this siege has been going on for so long?" Edsin had no idea how long the siege had been going on and only shrugged. "Normal rockcrete, which is what those walls are made of, would've crumbled apart weeks ago. This hive's got something else protecting the walls."

"A void shield!" The multi-eyed mutant exclaimed. Edsin raised an eyebrow. For any kind of structure to have a void shield was rare, let alone a hive. Plus-

"That'd take a lot of power." Edsin said. Both men nodded.

"Exactly. I think that if even one of the power plants in the hive could be shut down, the shield might fail." The penal legionnaire accented the point by raising a single finger in the air. "And if that were to happen, Matti here could have the three basilisks under him blow a hole in that wall big enough for the entire Host to get through." Edsin nodded, he could see why the marines had rejected it.

"How'd you plan to get into the hive?" Alain asked. The first smiled.

"I found a tunnel yesterday. An old sewer drainage leading into the underhive. It was blocked before, but yesterday I was in the hive." Both of Edsin's eyebrows went up at that.

"Well if it's like that then why did you need those marines?" Both the penal legionnaire and the mutant looked confused at that.

"Sergeant," The first said suspiciously. "Have you been to the front line?"

~/~/~

Two hours later, Edsin was at the front lines of the battle for Hive Traxis. The legionnaire was leading them through a series of trenches filled with blood, bodies, lost limbs and the occasional vermin. Other life was here too; traitor guardsmen in kits that seemed completely random ran both ways along the trench, pushing past their group with heavy weapons or just trying to get somewhere fast. There were few living cultists, that demographic making up most of the dead and the ones that were alive all had taken at least a lasgun. Occasionally an astartes would push past them; the large horns most wore on their helmets visible above the trench line.

Edsin glanced back at his squad, noticing that they were all keeping up and staying below the trench line. It seemed that while he and Alain had been at the bar, Irritus had taken Maria somewhere and covered up the small fleur de lis tattoo she had on her cheek with a larger sigil that stretched over her right eye. He noticed Irritus keeping close behind her, still without a weapon despite their location. Datave had apparently started teaching a group of cultists how to properly service a chimera in the short time and took a little convincing to get him to leave his class.

The sound of artillery had been constant since they had left the outer hive and passed the captured earthshaker batteries as well as Matti's squadron of basilisks. Now bolter fire was audible and constantly getting louder every right turn they made. He could see the walls of course, them being tall enough for him to have seen last night, but now they loomed above him, seeming impossibly tall. The legionnaire held up his hand for a halt and turned to Edsin.

"From here on in we gotta stay low. Bolter 'ill take off your head if it's above the trench line." Edsin nodded and yelled back to his impromptu squad over the chug of a nearby auto cannon.

"Stay low up here." The four heretics behind him all nodded and moved into a standing crouch. Edsin turned back around to see that their guide had already taken off down the trench. The sergeant took off after him with the rest in tow.

"So where's this tunnel of yours?" He asked as they ran. The legionnaire held up his hand again for a halt as a desecrated hellhound rolled over the trenches, crossing theirs ahead of them by only a few feet.

"It's up ahead, not too much farther now." The vehicle passed and they continued on, ignoring the traitor guard that jumped over them as they charged after the flame tank. "We overran the position a few days ago." They passed a traitor Marine standing above the trench line with a heavy bolter and rounded a corner. "Me and most of my old squad. We found the tunnel but it didn't open up until yesterday." They came up to a pair of legionaries, both firing their lasguns on full auto. Their guide looked confused. "What in the Warp are you two doing here?" He said, looking where they were shooting. "You're supposed to be holding that- Ahh!" He ducked as a burst of laser fire raked the air where he'd just been.

"That's why we're here." One of the legionaries said, ducking as well. "They retook the position last night. Only me and Garth here got away." Their guide cursed and Edsin chanced a glance over the trench at the position.

It was obvious which position he meant. Fifty meters ahead of him across a no man's land there was a small position hardly bigger than a chimera with sandbags all around it. There were bodies dressed in green, red, and the rags the penal legionaries wore. There were living behind the sand bags as well. Edsin counted a half dozen guardsmen putting down effective fires towards them. There was a heavy bolter there as well, but it was either out of ammo or broken as none of the guardsmen were using it. He ducked back down as a pair of lasbots shot past his head, but not before noticing a large grate on the ground behind the guardsmen.

"I take it that's the entrance to the tunnel?" Edsin asked the legionnaire that had brought them here. Their guide nodded, unslinging his lasgun.

"We need to retake that position to get into the hive." Edsin shook his head.

"No way. If the eight of us were to just charge them, we'd be cut apart before we made it twenty meters. Without any heavy wea…" He trailed off as he spotted something on the ground to the left of their position.

Sitting in its own little nest above the trench were two dead traitors slumped over a heavy stubber. Edsin crawled over to the nest and inspected the weapon. It appeared to be in working condition, there was plenty of ammo for the magazine fed machine gun, the only thing that was wrong seemed to be that the gunners were dead. He looked back at his allies.

The legionaries were returning fire along with Alain and Datave who Edsin had insisted take a lasgun from their vehicle. Maria was peeking over the trench, the former sister superior coming to the same conclusions he had a moment earlier. Irritus, however, was just taking cover.

"Irritus, get over here!" He yelled, grabbing the heavy machine gun and pulling it into the cover of the trench. Irritus ran over to him as quickly as he could and Edsin pointed to the ammunition boxes spread around. "Grab a couple and put the magazines into your kit." He ordered. The cultist nodded and scrambled up to take the ammo cans. Returning not a minute later and followed be a score of red bolts. Irritus began stuffing the magazines into his kit as Edsin confirmed what he'd been afraid of. The weapon was too heavy and long for him to use himself.

"Got it all sergeant." Irritus reported almost happily. Edsin nodded and extended the weapon's bipod legs.

"Ok, listen to me carefully. I am going to carry this gun on my shoulder and hold the legs. I will point it where it needs to go. You will hold the other end against your shoulder and keep it aimed where I point it. When I tell you too, you hold down the trigger. Once we start moving, we do not stop. Do you understand?" Irritus face went white at that and he swallowed hard.

"Sergeant, you know I can't fight-"

"Do you understand?" He asked again cutting him off. Irritus gulped and nodded. The sergeant and the cultist crawled back to the others and Edsin grabbed the shoulder of their guide, getting his attention. "When I tell you to, I need you all to lay down suppressive fire on that position." The legionnaire looked confused but nodded. Edsin looked over at Maria. "When we start moving, you need to be right behind us." The former battle sister nodded no trace of hesitation in her eyes. Edsin returned the nod and looked over the trench line. He watched as two of the guardsmen whose weapons were on full auto dropped to a knee to reload. 'Good a time as any.' Edsin thought. "NOW!" He screamed.

"For Chaos!" The penal soldiers all yelled as they fired their weapons on full auto. Edsin got a firm grip on the stubber's bipod legs and climbed over the trench.

Setting foot in no man's land Edsin immediately regretted his decision. They took off at a run and he had to work to keep the weapon steady on his shoulder. To his surprise Irritus was having no trouble keeping up and the guardsmen were all pinned down by the lasgun fire. It didn't take long, however, for them to notice the machine gun running at them and as they raised their lasguns Edsin yelled. "Fire!" Despite his own uncertainty about using a weapon, Irritus kept the trigger down and Edsin raked the barrel back and forth along the position taking at least one in the head and another in the midsection. The rest all ducked for cover behind the sandbags. Edsin grit his teeth as the sound of rounds leaving the barrel made his ears ring. They were halfway there when Edsin spotted something horrible. Something two meters taller than himself and aiming an autocannon at him.

~/~/~

Alain watched as Edsin and Irritus charged across the open field with Maria in tow. He and Datave had kept up the suppressive fire with the penal legionaries and he could see that their comrades were half way through the open area when he saw the sentinel.

There was no mistaking the green vehicle for anything but an Imperial machine. Said machine walked across the open field towards the subber without fear. Edsin yanked the barrel over so that Irritus could start putting grounds into the armored cockpit, but they bounced harmlessly off the front armor. The sentinel stopped to adjust its aim and Alain knew they didn't have any time. Oddly, for Alain time seemed to slow as he thought

'okokok…think…thi-'

'wHy BOtheR tHinKiNg FOr yOUrseLf?' Alain froze. He'd heard voices before, but never like this. This one was clear.

'What?' He thought. Time was moving so slowly now it almost seemed frozen. 'What do you mean?'

'YOu CaN saVE yOUr FRienDs.' The voice continued. 'I caN ShOw yoU hOW.' Alain shut his eyes, intending to fight this voice the same way he'd fought the others when he remembered what Edsin had said at the bar. He opened his eyes and starred at the walker that was seconds away from killing Edsin and Irritus.

"How?"

~/~/~

No sooner had he spotted the vehicle then Edsin twisted his body and brought the still firing weapon to face the armored walker. Irritus held down on the trigger and pelted the front of the cockpit with the large caliber rounds. Unsurprisingly, at least to Edsin, they bounced off the armor and the machine hardly slowed in its advance. Even as Edsin tried to adjust their aim, the walker stopped to aim its autocannon and the sergeant knew that it was all over. As he looked down the barrel he felt something brush past his leg. Then something else. He looked down just in time to see thick black chains shoot out of the ground like possessed snakes. They came up just in front of Edsin and headed straight for the walker as though they were magnetized. More sprang up at the vehicle's feet and began to coil around the armored legs. Others wrapped themselves around the servos and pistons. A pair went up to twist themselves around the autocannon's barrel, ripping the weapon from its mount. If it had been a scout variant, Edsin was sure that the pilot would have looked just as surprised as he was.

In a flash of movement Edsin saw Maria rush past him. The former repentia revved her massive chainsword as she ran and brought it in a horizontal swipe at the walker's lower left leg. The large teeth of the eviscerator dug into one of the metal rungs of the leg between the constricting chains and it began to stagger. Maria leaned into the attack, forcing the blades further in.

Irritus had kept his finger on the trigger the entire time and though he couldn't hear if the weapon was firing anymore, Edsin felt the bolt lock to the rear as the magazine went dry. The cultist set down his end of the weapon and began fumbling for another magazine when Edsin saw the top hatch of the walker open and the head and torso of the pilot appeared. The Imperial raised a laspistol and Edsin immediately dropped the stubber and went for his hellgun. If the pilot had wanted to, he would have had Edsin and Irritus easily; however his attention was on the woman who was cutting her way through his walker's leg. Edsin brought his weapon up and as he did he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. Ignoring it for the moment, he tried to get a bead on the pilot. The vehicle was wobbling, an indication that Maria's attacks were having an effect and throwing his aim off. The Imperial seemed less impaired and let off a pair of shots off the side. At that range there was no way he could miss. Without a big chainsword cutting through it, the walker stabilized and Edsin lined up the shot. The last thing the pilot saw was the red of Edsin's hellgun fire.

The pilot's body fell off the walker and the chains holding it all receded into the ground. Edsin turned back to see that Irritus had disappeared somewhere. 'Now I'm down two.' The sergeant thought. The sudden bark of a heavy bolter was enough to interrupt his thoughts and make him dive for cover. Part of his mind told him that his hearing had returned, the other part was more interested in how the crater they were in kept them in cover. The sound was coming from the position they had been assaulting and Edsin realized that they must've gotten the heavy bolter back on-line. He cursed and looked over at the position. To his surprise the only people around the heavy bolter were a few penal legionaries and a man who looked like a servitor. They had captured the position and the heretek fixed the broken bolter and turned it on the loyalists.

As he stood Edsin saw that it wasn't just there. All along the trench line traitor guard, heretics, cultists, and the occasional marine had charged, taking the enemy positions or destroying their opposite numbers and moving ever closer to the wall.

"Quite the charge there sergeant." Edsin spun around to see Irritus and Maria standing behind him. The sergeant looked at him and Maria answered his unspoken question.

"Irritus knocked me out of the way just in time. In another instant I'd have a lasbolt through my head." Edsin thought about saying something but decided that it was better to get to another covered position before the loyalists counterattacked and signaled the cultist and sister to follow. They reached the position to find one of the traitors on the heavy bolter while Datave was busy giving the other two a class on how the weapon worked. Edsin grabbed the shoulder of the one from before and pointed to the grate they were now next to. The penal soldier smiled.

**A/N: Review? **


	8. Chapter 8

The grate covering the entrance to the hive's sewers took no less than five human arms and one mechanical one to lift out of the way. Even as they moved it aside the other penal soldiers were still fighting the loyalists. Datave's repairs and instructions enough to get the heavy bolter working again.

"Keep up the fire you two." Their guide said. "If I get back here and this place is overrun again, I'll kill you myself." The two other legionaries nodded and went back to firing the heavy weapon. The legionnaire turned back to Edsin. "Well, let's get moving." He said as he suited action to words and began climbing down the metal rungs set into the side of the sewer entrance. All the members of his impromptu squad looked at their sergeant who only frowned.

"Well you heard him." He said and started down himself.

~/~/~

The tunnel they arrived in was both darker and farther down then Edsin had expected. Their guide activated a lamp on the end of his lasgun and Edsin wished he'd thought to bring one, no doubt there'd been a few on the chimera.

"Uh, Sergeant?" Edsin turned around to see the outline of the greatcoat wearing cultist holding a pair of cylinders. The sergeant starred at him so the cultist twisted the end of one and a beam of light shot out. "I thought you might want one." Edsin took one and gave him a slight nod. The cultist smiled back and even in the gloom Edsin could see the man's jagged teeth.

Edsin took a quick glance around the tunnel they were in. It was made of thick rockcrete. Old, probably dating back to when the hive had first been built whenever that was. Thick cables ran along the ceiling in both directions in a half dozen colors. It wasn't as small as some sewers he'd seen, but they wouldn't be able to walk more than three abreast. No room to fight if they had too. Part of Edsin told him not to enter a situation where he could be ambushed again, another part told him they'd already come too far. Agreeing with the second part Edsin turned to see the last of his squad reach the bottom.

Irritus was looking around the tunnel with his own laminator and Edsin noticed that despite having used one so recently, the cultist still had no weapon. He also noticed that he was standing a bit closer to Maria than anyone else. For her part, the former sister superior was looking at her chainsword. Noting where the attack on the sentinel had taken off some if it's teeth and glancing over at Irritus every now and then Datave stood behind them, quietly admiring the cables on the ceiling, his mechanical eye glowing softly. Next to him Alain had slung his lasgun and was rubbing his forehead with both hands. Without looking he noticed the sergeant's glance and stopped. "C'mon, let's get going." The legionary said starting off down the tunnel. Edsin took one last look back at the other heretics then followed after.

~/~/~

"How long is this tunnel?" Edsin asked the question more out of boredom than actually wanting to know the answer. Their guide was in the center with Edsin on his right and Alain on his left. A few steps behind them were Irritus, Maria, and Datave from left to right. The legionary glanced up at the ceiling as though he recognized their location from the way the wires looked.

"Shouldn't be much further now." He said. They'd been walking for what felt like an hour and Edsin had been on edge the entire time. He rolled his eyes and noticed that Alain hadn't unslung his weapon. Edsin had been cradling his hellgun in the crook of his right arm and holding the laminator Irritus had given him with the other. The rest of the squad all had their weapons ready, all of them having been in at least one ambush lately. Alain was rubbing his head again though this time it was the back.

"What's up?" Edsin asked, trying to sound as though he was worried about the psyker as a person and not because he thought he might suddenly explode and kill them.

"Huh?" The psyker asked and looked at him in the gloom. Edsin shined the light in his eyes.

"What's going on? You've been acting funny." Alain starred at the sergeant for a moment then sighed.

"I've been hearing the voices again, but when we were up top one came through clearly." If there had been adequate lighting in the tunnel, Alain would have noticed the lack of expression on Edsin's face. As it was he took the NCO's silence for understanding.

"What did it say?" Edsin asked, taking the light out of the psykers face and again asking a question that he didn't care about the answer to.

"It asked me…it…it asked…me….AAAHHHH!" Alain dropped to the ground and grabbed his head screaming. Everyone stopped and looked at the psyker.

"What's wrong?" Irritus asked. Alain grit his teeth and blood started flowing from his ears.

"Nothing. There's nothing…just…nothing…" Edsin looked at the former guardsman at his feet then looked into the gloom farther down the tunnel.

"Datave," The sergeant said in a clipped tone. "You've got an auspex built in right?" The heretek nodded.

"I do indeed sergeant." Edsin nodded slowly and leveled his hellgun in front of him.

"How many life forms are showing up on it?" He asked. Maria took his meaning and held her chainsword out in front of her and the legionary followed suit. Datave looked at his arm.

"I can see….oh that's interesting." The mechanical man went silent. Edsin swallowed and called back without looking away from the tunnel.

"What? What do you see?" Datave pressed some runes set into his metal arm.

"I'm showing at least ten different life forms. That is in addition to our own readings." Before anyone could even began to panic the legionnaire's head exploded.

Edsin dropped to the ground immediately, reflexes kicking in and causing the lasbolts to pass through the air above his head instead of into it. The red beams illuminated the tunnel and Edsin saw Irritus jump behind to Maria as she lashed out at silhouette in the darkness next to her. He watched Datvae pull his lasgun up to fire at something in front of them when a sparking maul sung out from the darkness next to him and smashed into his head, knocking the heretek onto the ground. Edsin realized then what was happening and rolled to the left where their guide's headless body had fallen, narrowly missing the shock maul that was meant for him.

He pushed himself up with both hands and twisted his body so that his hellgun was pointing to the right. Letting off a burst he was rewarded with both a scream and another look at the tunnel as the red bolts lit it up. The man he'd hit was wearing black carapace armor like his, only he was wearing a full face mask. His victim fell backwards and Edsin saw another armored man standing behind him. This one carrying a hellgun. He leveled the weapon at him and Edsin did the first thing that came to mind. He tossed his hellgun at him. The masked assailant's reflexes failed him and he dropped his own weapon to catch Edsin's, pausing in his confusion just long enough to realize that it was still connected to the traitor's backpack. Edsin yanked on the cable and the weapon flew out of his hands and clattered on the floor. His opponent looked at it as it fell and was rewarded with a clear view of Edsin's foot. The boot connected with the facemask and the Edsin heard the glass crunch. His opponent fell over backwards and Edsin turned around…

To see a bare fist coming at him. The solid right took him just above the bridge of his nose and sent him reeling. He grabbed his face with his left hand and brought up his right arm, blocking another attack. Still holding his face, Edsin grabbed the arm he'd blocked, but just as he did, he felt the first fist hit him again. Punching his left knuckles so that his own palm smashed his nose. Edsin held onto the limb he'd grabbed using it as reference and brought his right knee up where his attackers gut should have been. He only hit air and felt a foot slide behind his left foot. Realizing his attackers plan, he pulled the arm he held out and away from the two of them so that if he was tripped, they'd be off balance and fall with him. He moved his right hand away from his face in time to see a black haired head coming at him.

The head butt send Edsin onto his back and his world began to spin as the repeated head trauma was final taking toll. He looked up at his attacker, only able to see a fuzzy shape in the gloom. He was, however, able to discern the large laspistol being removed from a shoulder holster and pointed at him. He took a deep breath and felt the tunnel growing even darker until he could only hear words.

"Good one Alex," A man's voice said. "That was the last of them. Let's bag em' and get back to the inquisitor." A pause. "The inquisitor wants them alive." Another pause, then Edsin heard a female voice say:

"Alive it is. As long as I'm getting paid." Then Edsin didn't hear anything else.

~/~/~

**A/N: The Warhammer 40,000 series belongs to Games Workshop, and NOT me. **

**Review? **


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: you didn't think I'd forgotten about this did you?**

Edsin's eyes snapped open. His mouth, dry with dehydration, opened and a strained gasp escaped as he was forced into consciousness. He could feel something in his arm and without looking he recognized the feel of 'Spur entering his bloodstream. It was a big dose. The Sergeant's breathing quickened and finally slowed as the unseen syringe emptied. He tried to turn his head to look at whatever was attached to his arm but felt something pushing on his forehead. A few other attempted movements confirmed that he was completely strapped to the chair he had awoken in. He didn't feel the weight of his armor, only the places where IV tubes had been hooked up. Only able to stare forward, and too drugged up to shut his eyes, Edsin took in the room between shallow breaths.

It was plain. The room was brightly lit so he could see everything clearly, but there was nothing to see. The walls were bare rockcrete, and he couldn't see any windows. The door was made of the same material and he might have missed it had his senses not been forced to superhuman levels. The door was barley perceivable as it was offset from the wall by mere inches. He couldn't see anything else, but he could hear servos and pistons moving behind him and somewhere there was a low, constant rumbling. He didn't have much longer to examine the room as the thick door began to slide open. The first two people inside were a pair of the black armored troopers he'd seen in the tunnel. Now that they were in the light the storm troopers were as obvious as the large white **I** on their chests. They came around either side of him till he couldn't see them with his peripheral vision, but he could very clearly hear the sound of their shotguns being pumped. Then a tall masked figure entered the room.

"Sergeant," It said in a heavily augmented voice. "It's so good to see you again."

~/~/~

Irritus was in trouble. Of that much he was sure. For one the room he was in was completely dark. For another, he could feel thick rope tied around his feet and tying his hands behind the back of the chair he was in. He tried to move the chair but it was heavier than he thought and didn't move. 'This is bad' the cultist thought. 'How am I going to get out of this? Worse, how is the rest of the Host going to get into the hive if we can't knock out the shield?' That last thought brought horrible images to of the Host falling apart to Irritus's mind and he put them from his head. He sighed and simply said;

"Shit." Right away he felt something hit the back of his chair and he could hear breathing behind him. The cultist froze, hoping that whatever was behind him couldn't see in the darkness either.

"Irritus? Is that you?" Maria's voice stabbed through the darkness and Irritus breathed a sigh of relief.

"Maria? Yes it's me." He said trying to shift his hands. "Where are you?" The ex-sister cleared her throat.

"I'm tied to a chair," Something pushed on Irritus' chair again. "But I can't move it." Irritus realized what was going on and reached out as far as his tied wrist allowed him to. As he suspected his hands found a pair of calloused ones.

"Looks like were tied together."

~/~/~

Alain was fairly certain that his head was underwater. He hadn't opened his eyes so he had no point of reference, but he was fairly certain by the way his head felt. 'My head.' The psyker thought with a cringe. It hurt in ways he didn't understand. The normal headaches were gone but in their place was something even worse. In their place was nothing. Not in the normal sense, but nothing to the point where it hurt. Ever since he'd first noticed the voices he had been able to sense the presence of his comrades. Once he'd begun to embrace it it'd gotten even easier. He could recognize one person's presence from another. Irritus's enthusiastic mind, Maria's single-minded one, Datave's partial brain. Even his new sergeant's closed mind was identifiable to him. But not at that moment. At that moment his head was under water and he felt a hand pressing down on the back of his head. Alain realized he was drowning.

Before he could feel the embrace of death the hand on his head grabbed his hair and ripped his head out of the water. He gasped for air and then screamed as the feeling of nothing intensified.

"You feel it, don't you psyker." The hand pushed his head back into the water. Alain barely had time to register the voice as female before the pain and the sensation of drowning took over. Just as he was ready to pass out and die, the hand pulled him back up. And the nothing returned in full. "You can feel me." Back in the water but not for as long this time. "You're trying to find my soul but you can't. And do you know why?" She pushed his head back underwater for longer than any time before. When he came up she whispered in his ear. "Because it's not there."

~/~/~

Datave could feel the fragments of memories return as the auto-repair protocols in his mechanical mind began to finish their work.

"_What about this one?"_ He regained control of his metal arm and could feel the floor of the pipe where they'd been attacked.

"_What, the servitor?"_ His vision in his mechanical eye began to return and he could see he was alone in the darkness.

"_I doubt the Inquisitor will get anything out of that."_ Datave looked at the auspex on his forearm.

"_Leave it."_ There was no sign of life. The Tech-Adept sighed and began to orient himself in the tunnel. After a minute he determined the way that they had come and started back in that direction.

~/~/~

"You don't remember me, do you?" The masked Inquisitor asked as it moved further into the room and shut the door behind. Edsin starred where he thought the eyes would be. "But then again that just means that it worked." The Inquisitor reached up under the mask and Edsin guessed it was rubbing its chin. "Have to say though, I didn't think you'd go and turn traitor." Edsin flexed his limbs trying to see which bond was the weakest. The figure moved out of Edsin's line of sight and kept talking "Admittedly when I started poking around in your mind and scooped out your memories I wasn't sure what would happen." Edsin heard a hiss of escaping air and heard something metal clatter on a table out of his field of vision. "But I certainly didn't expect this." The Inquisitor moved back where Edsin could see and Edsin got a good look at him.

The man's face could only be described as ugly. Scars ran up and down his face and crossed each other in places in ways that Edsin knew wouldn't have been caused by combat. Brown eyes sat above a nose that looked as though it had been broken one to many times and the smile revealed several metal teeth. On top of this mess was a meager amount of black hair, all combed to one side and greasy enough to reflect the light. Edsin had a good idea as to why he wore the mask.

"Of course that made getting you back an even bigger problem." The Inquisitor walked over to the door and pressed a switch. "I was beginning to doubt you'd find the tunnel, but you surprised me again." Edsin gave the restraints another flex. "And you even brought friends." Edsin's pupils darted back to his captor. "I think they'll make some wonderful test subjects." Unconsciously Edsin's eyes narrowed. The Inquisitor turned, smiled, and walked back over to him.

"Now," Edsin felt the room began to grow cold and he heard the stormtrooper next to him gulp. "Let's see what my project found out for me." Edsin felt a hand on his head, and then he felt it in his head.

~/~/~

"Ok, ready? One…two…three!" Irritus and Maria jumped at the same time and moved their tied together chairs a few inches closer to the wall. As his eye had adjusted to the dark he'd seen a large box on the wall and reasoned that there might be a circuit there that might turn on the lights. In the hour since they'd awoken, they'd moved only about two feet towards the box. Still three feet away. "Were getting closer." The cultist said for Maria's benefit. Heavy breathing was her reply. "Ready? One-"

"NO" The ex-sister cut him off. Irritus Looked as far over his shoulder as he could but the angle and the darkness kept him from seeing the woman he was tied to. "I mean…maybe we should take a break." She continued through deep breaths. The cultist frowned. He was breathing hard as well, but they didn't have the time to waste.

"Only for a little bit then. The rest of the Host is counting on us to get the shield down." Maria gave a chuckle and shook her head.

"I don't get how you do it." She said between breaths. Irritus tried to look at Maria again.

"What do you mean?" He asked. Maria shook her head.

"How is it that you can still be so motivated?" She took another deep breath. "We've been captured, imprisoned, and are probably awaiting torture and death. But here you are still trying to finish that mission, I just don't get it." For a long few minutes there was nothing but the sound of their breathing. Maria tried to look over her shoulder at the cultist but it was still too dark to make out anything besides an outline.

"What do you believe in Maria?" Irritus asked at length. The ex-sister raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean-"

"What do you believe in?" He repeated. "Do you believe in the Emperor or his Imperium that turned its back on you and left my planet to die?" Maria was silent for a moment before she said a shaky.

"No…" Irritus snorted.

"Then do you believe in chaos. That the Ruinous powers truly are the best hope for humanity?" He only paused for a second. "Because I do. I really do believe that the best hope for humanity and my daughter, wherever she is, is a unity through Chaos. For that I will do anything." He took a deep breath. "And part of that means that I can't give up. Even if…" He gulped and Maria felt him begin to shake. "Even if I c-can't really do anything to our enemies. I have to try a-and keep trying. I can't give up. I can't." The former repentia felt the cultist shaking in his chair and thought about his words. She had heard hundreds of confessors and priests give sermons far longer and with more volume and showmanship, but for the first time in her life she had truly understood. She was nodding even before she realized it and cleared her throat to say.

"Ok." She felt Irritus stop shaking.

"What?" He asked. She was still nodding.

"I said ok. Now let's get over to that box."

~/~/~

Alain spat out water as his head was lifted above the tub. That time he hadn't been able to hold his breath and reflex had opened his mouth. The feeling of nothing returned again and his eye twitched of its own accord.

"It's really too easy with you psykers." His captor said. "The fact is, my presence alone is enough to cause you pain." She leaned in to speak into his ear and Alain could feel the lack of soul. "And the Inquisitor has paid me to cause you as much pain as I can." This close Alain's eyes darted around the room without his control. He looked from the ceiling, to the pipes on the wall, to the floor…

'The Pipes.' He thought through the pain and an idea began to form in his head as it went back under the water.

~/~/~

Datave found the metal grate that had covered the tunnel entrance was still uncovered and climbed out onto the surface. His first glance was to the heavy bolter and the penal troopers he had taught in its use. The two traitors lay slumped over either side of the weapon and the tech-adept shook his head. He noticed that he wasn't being shot at and looked around the rest of the battlefield.

It seemed that his sergeant's charge had been more effective than they had thought. Not only had the traitor forces moved up to the next line of trenches, but they had pushed so much closer to the wall that Datave could barely see the flashes of red and explosions.

Certain that the best he could do for his cause and captured team was closer to the frontline where he might be able to recruit some allies to help him form a rescue he started in that direction. He hadn't gone thirty feet when his augmented ear picked up on the sound of metal gears moving and his human ear heard a deep voice.

"Techpriest, I require assistance." Datave's eyes immediately went to his auspex, but it showed only a faint reading next to him. He looked over to his left only to see a number of cultist bodies next to a wrecked dreadnought.

'Nothing there could have made that sound.' He thought and looked back at the auspex.

"Techpriest the dreadnought." The deep voice said again and Datave looked back at the wrecked vehicle. "Techpriest I have been damaged by the heretics, but even now my battle brothers press on. Preform the rites of matnience so that I might join them." For a long moment Datave said nothing.

"You are mistaken Marine, you have fallen in battle and your enemies have passed you and moved the fight closer to what it is you defended." The dreadnought's response was quick.

"If we were forced to retreat, then my brothers would have recovered my body." Datave looked around but the only beings he saw were the heretics fighting in the distance.

"I don't see anyone here." He said. "You have been left behind." The machine made a noise that might have been a snort.

"That is not possible." It said. Datave shrugged.

"Perhaps not, but it is still true." The hereteck took a better look at the damaged walker. It was of the most basic design. Two stubby arms that and a modern, post-heresy suspension and legs. Even wrecked it was in much better condition than some of the ones he'd seen Word Bearers use. The most noticeable problem was that whatever weapons it had had been ripped off, though that would not affect how well the walker worked. His mechanical eye telescoped to focus on one of the legs. The only damage he could see was there at the joint. 'It would be a simple repair.' He thought. 'I might even be able to show him how to fix it himself.' He frowned. 'But so long as this one serves the Imperium it would be pointless.' Datave turned and began to walk away. "I apologize but I still need to find a way to rescue my comrades." Datave was almost out of earshot when he heard the dreadnought yell.

"Techpriest wait! I must know." Datave continued to walk away but let his mechanical ear pick up the words. "I must know who it is that you would go help when the space marines would not help one of their own." Datave stopped and turned around.

"There is a sergeant that helped me to remember what my true duty to humanity was and he was leading a squad of his own. They were captured and I will do all that I can to rescue them." He said. The dreadnaught was silent and Datave began to turn around again when he heard the deep voice say:

"Tell me more about this sergeant."

~/~/~

Edsin's face twisted and contorted in a number of ways and his body would have done the same had it not been strapped to the chair in a half dozen places. He felt the Inquisitor search through his thoughts. His memories. His experiences. All at once he felt the hand in his mind retract and the Inquisitor's physical had retracted from his head. And slapped him across the face.

"You son of a Bitch!" He yelled. Edsin's eyes had unfocused while the Inquisitor searched through his mind and had only began to refocus when he was slapped. The man in front of him was only a black blur. "You really don't care do you?" Edsin's vision began to clear and he could begin to make out the expression of anger on the man's face. "I don't believe it. Months with the traitors and you can't even remember the name of the Apostle leading the host." Edsin remembered Irritus telling him the name but couldn't remember it. "I bet you don't even remember the name of the planet you're on." Edsin did not.

The Inquisitor growled and walked out of his line of sight, returning a second later with his mask. "I thought that my experiment might yield at least some success, but I see now that I was wrong." He slid the mask back over his face and his voice changed. "Kill him and the others. None of them will be of any use." And with that the Inquisitor left the room.

Edsin could hear the two stormtroopers talking as he gave the restraints one last test flex. His left arm bond was still the weakest.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Looks who's back**

"Ok we made it." Irritus said between deep breaths. The woman he was tied to let out a small laugh as she gasped for air.

"Good…that's good. What next?" Irritus licked his dry lips.

"Let me see." He opened his mouth and gripped the latch between broken teeth. Rolling his head around he twisted the handle until the door on the fuse box swing open. Inside he was greeted with the sight of a dozen or so wires. Picking one at random he bit down on it and pulled.

~/~/~

Edsin could only see the edges of the storm troopers black armored bodies but it was enough to tell where their hands, and more importantly, their shotguns were. He took a deep breath, held it for a second, and then slowly exhaled. He felt the barrels of the shotguns on his temples and in one motion; he snapped his left arm back while twisting that wrist. The sudden motion snapped the wire that had been around that wrist. No sooner was that hand free when the lights in the room went out.

Both the storm troopers yelled in surprise and Edsin grabbed the barrel of the left shotgun and yanked. Feeling someone holding onto the weapon the storm trooper pulled the trigger. The flash from the weapon was enough to light up the room just long enough for all three occupants to see the shotgun was aimed at the other storm trooper. In the next instant it was dark again and Edsin heard the sound of crumbling carapace on rockcrete. The living storm trooper regained control of the shotgun and Edsin's free hand grabbed at the restraint on his head. He could hear the sound of the storm trooper racking back again on the weapon as he undid the restraint one his forehead. No sooner had he put his chin to his chest when another flash of light illuminated the room.

He felt the air mover over his neck as the pellets passed over him. Before the storm trooper could eject the spent round Edsin grabbed at the right handed restraint. The storm trooper pumped the shotgun and Edsin put all the momentum from his to free limbs and head into rolling forward. With a loud snap the bonds on his waist and legs broke and he summersaulted forward as the shotgun discharged.

Edsin felt something stab into his leg but he ignored it and used the flash of light to find the dead storm trooper. He spotted the body literally next to where the roll had put him and grabbed for the shotgun. The living storm trooper ejected the spent shell and Edsin turned towards the sound and fired.

~/~/~

A small hand grabbed Alain's head by his hair and pulled it out of the water for what felt like the hundredth time. He gasped for air only to cringe when he felt the woman's presence.

"You don't give up easily psyker, I'll give you that." She dug her fingers into his scalp. "But I'll break you. Just like all the others." Alain shook with pain and his eyes found the pipe he'd seen earlier. Then the lights went out.

In surprise the woman let go of Alain's head. It felt as though the lack of her physical presence had lessened her null presence and the mental pain dissipated. Alain wasted no time. He lunged forward over the tube he'd been dunked in and put both hands on the pipe. He focused on the pipes with all his mental might and felt the now familiar feeling of voices in his head. The pipe began to glow in the dark and went from yellow to orange to red to white. Alain heard the woman moving behind him and the feeling of nothing began to return but he had already done what he wanted to. There was a pop somewhere in the darkness to his right and he heard a loud hissing sound from there. The woman screamed in pain and Alain felt the warm air on his face. He realized that it was probably scalding hot but for whatever reason he wasn't in any pain. He turned towards her screams in the darkness.

"I don't need my powers to find you." Alain said moving towards the screams.

He stretched out his hands and found her head, feeling her null presence again but ignoring the pain in his head. "And I don't need them to kill you either." He placed his thumbs over her eyeballs…

~/~/~

Maria starred up at the simple light fixture that she could just barely make out in the dark as Irritus continued ripping out wires with his teeth. Nothing was happening. She looked all around her but everything in the dark room looked the same. After a minute of listening to Irritus pull wires she sighed.

"Maybe there's something else we can try." She offered. She heard another wire snap and then Irritus spit.

"Maybe your right, though I thought for sure this circuit box would be connected to something." Maria gave a tight lipped smile even though she knew the cultist couldn't see it.

"I'm sure you can think of something." She said. Irritus opened his mouth to reply when they both heard the sound of heavy feet walking outside their room. Heavy _armored_ feet.

"What's going on in there?" a voice on the other side of the wall said. The two heretics held their breath.

"What do you mean?" A second voice asked.

"We're having power outages all over the facility and the only circuit breaker that hasn't been checked is in there." The first voice said in an annoyed tone. The second voice's reply sounded confused.

"Wait a second; I've got two prisoners in there." Maria bit her lip and looked over her shoulder. "They must've messed with the wires."

"Irritus." Maria said in a sort of loud whisper. "How much do you weigh?" She felt the cultist try to move in his seat and guessed he was trying to look over his shoulder.

"I'm not sure…a hundred and thirty pounds maybe." Maria took a deep breath and tried to determine if her plan would work. "Why?" He asked. She heard the voices outside again.

"We'll let's get in there and make sure that they don't do any more damage." She head them messing with the lock.

'No time.' She thought. "Ok Irritus, when I tell you to I need you to put your legs up on the wall and kick off, ok?" She felt Irritus move again before saying a shaky.

"Ok…" The door swung open and light poured into the room. Maria took a deep breath and leaned as far forward as she could. Her feet were flat on the ground and she crouched until she felt the weight of the chairs and cultist on her back.

"Ok…now…"

~/~/~

Edsin pointed the shotgun into the same place in the darkness for a whole minute after he fired it. After what seemed like forever he heard the sound of carapace falling on the ground. Then nothing. No sound at all. He relaxed and the lights flickered and came back on.

Or to be more correct, red emergency lights came on and bathed the room in a red glow. Edsin could see the two dead storm troopers laying on the floor, each with a hole in the front of their armor where the weapon had torn into them. At this range and with a weapon like this carapace would do nothing. He took a deep breath and began to stand when he felt the stabbing pain in his left leg again. Looking down he saw where he'd been shot.

It hadn't been a direct hit, but he enough of the pellets had hit him that he had a large gash just above his knee. And it was bleeding. Edsin forced himself to stand up despite the pain and limped over to the table he hadn't been able to see before. It was cleared off for the most part save for the IV equipment that had until only recently been hooked up to. He removed the bag that was still attached to the machine and put the tube back into the catheter that was still in his arm.

Squeezing the bag he felt the spur shoot into his blood stream and dissolve the pain. He sighed in relief and put the bag in his left hand above his arm. Looking around the rest of the room he found a rag sitting on the table and grabbed the sheath from one of the storm troopers knives. He took the sheath and held it against the top of his left thigh as he tied the rag around it. After the rag was tight he twisted the sheath until the bleeding stopped. The makeshift tourniquet would do for now but the wound would kill him if he didn't find any actual medical supplies. He used another rag to tie the IV bag to his left shoulder and started undoing one of the storm troopers armor.

~/~/~

When he was finished his hands up to his forearms were drenched in blood. Alain let go of the bounty hunters body and looked at his hands. He felt happy. For the first time he could remember he didn't have a head ache and he felt happy.

'FeELs goOd DosEn't iT?' Alain stood straight up. The sound had come from behind him. He turned around but the only thing there was the tub that the bounty hunter had been dunking his head in. Alain leaned over and starred at his reflection. Only the face looking back at him wasn't his own.

The face looking back him was a sick purple color. The eyes were too high up of the face and one looked larger than the other. The mouth was far wider than normal and the bottom row of teeth protruded out. Two horns topped off the demonic face. It blinked at him. Alain realized why his headache was gone.

"WeLL?" It said, and Alain heard the voice in his head rather than with his ears. "dIDn'T tHat Feel gOoD?" Alain bit his lip.

"What? Killing?" He asked with a gesture to the eyeless body. The Demon shook its head.

"nO, ReVEnGe." Alain looked down at his blood soaked hands. "aND tHEre'S MorE tO ComE." Alain looked back at the demon in the water.

"More to come?" He repeated. The demon nodded.

"MuCH MoRe aND It sTArtS WIth tHis HiVE." Alain shook his head.

"We still need to shut down the power to that shield before anyone else is getting in here. And I don't even know where I am; let alone where that power plant is." The demon chuckled.

"Do YOu hEAr THat?" It asked. Alain frowned and opened his mouth to speak when his ears heard a distant sound. It was faint, steady rumble. Like the sound of large machinery. "yOU MigHT bE CloSEr tHaN YoU tHinK."

~/~/~

When the door opened the first thing that Sister Anna saw was that the heretics were gone. Completely gone. Even the chairs she'd tied them to had vanished.

"Where'd they go?" Sister Rita asked. Anna shook her head.

"I don't know they were right he-" The sound of wood snapping somewhere in the darkness interrupted her. Both sisters looked at each other then flipped the safeties off their bolters. They strode into the room side by side and that was when the heretics made their move. The door they stepped though only seconds ago slammed shut putting them in darkness.

Sister Rita immediately spun around and let off a half dozen shot at the door. The muzzle flashes lit up the room for an instant, providing just enough light to see that there was nothing where she was shooting. Suddenly Anna felt someone behind her. She tried to turn around but they were chest to back with her. The person grabbed her left hand and forced it so her bolter was pointed somewhere in the darkness, while she felt another hand wrap around her right hand. The grip on her right hand pushed her finger into the trigger and her bolter lit up the room.

The muzzle flashes provided just enough light for her to see that she was shooting Sister Rita in the back.

She was able to force the bolter out of her hands but the damage was done. As the bolter was clattering on the floor she felt the hands let her arms go and grab around her head. One holding her chin, the other on the back of her skull. Then the hands pulled on her head in different directions.

~/~/~

Irritus heard a wet snapping sound followed by a clatter of armor on the floor. He crept back over to the door he'd just closed and reopened it, letting light from the hallway spill back in. In the light he saw Maria standing over the armored body. Her face had the look of someone trying very hard not to have any expression on it.

"Good job Maria." He said walking up to her. "They didn't stand a chance." Maria just starred at the body on the ground. Irritus looked back at the door. Surely someone had heard the gunshots. "We should get go-"

"Her name was Anna." She said interrupting the cultist. Irritus looked back at the former sister. He noticed that she was shaking a little.

"Did you know her?" He asked, glancing back at the door. Maria shrugged.

"Not really. I just…I remembered her face." Irritus put a hand on her shoulder. She twitched a little at the contact.

"Are you ok?" he asked, genuine concern in his voice. Maria nodded slowly and took his hand in hers and squeezed it.

"Yeah, thanks." She took a deep breath. "Give me a hand with the body." Irritus failed to hide his surprise as Maria turned the body over.

"What are you doing? More of them will be here any minute." Maria ignored him and reached around the collar of the power armor until she found a latch. With a click the first piece of the armor came off.

"Help me get this on."

**A/N: Hey everybody, thanks for all the reviews and follows from the last couple of months. It's great to know that people are enjoying this!**

**I feel like mentioning that at this point "Edsin's Own" has been in production for over a year, either in rough drafts, completed chapters, or different concepts entirely that got cut before I started submitting anything. That makes it the longest still successful writing project I've done. I put a lot of effort into this story and I'm glad that people enjoy it as much as I do. **


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Long time no see guys, sorry about that. College turned out to keep me busier than I thought it would, plus I fried my computer. That said I know how I want the rest of this story to go so I'm going to try to finish this up by the end of summer, earlier if I can. **

**This chapter was written in, and is brought to you by, British Colombia. **

Maria peaked out into the hallway, looking left then right before motioning to the cultist. She stepped out into the hallway, her newly power armored feet making a slight clang as she walked. The former repentia couldn't have been happier. She had forgotten all the little details of Sororitas armor. The way the collar sat just below her chin, the way the armor felt tight on her forearms. She smiled as she hefted her stolen bolter. She decided that this was the feeling she had missed most of all, the feeling of a bolter in her hands. One side of the hallway ended in a dead end while the other went off a ways and cornered. She covered the open hallway and waved for the cultist to follow.

Irritus was still unarmed. The former factory foreman was still convinced that he couldn't fight and had refused the other bolter. He posted up behind Maria, and she glanced over her shoulder to look at him.

To Maria his entire body looked somehow broken. Blood from wounds in the tunnel had dried on his face and one of his eyes had a ring around it. The Commissars greatcoat had been taken from him as well as his chest rig and pouches leaving him on only a pair of tattered pants. Despite his appearance though, the cultist was smiling. The grin was contagious and Maria found herself smiling back at the man.

"Let's get going. If there were power outages around the building, we might be able to free the others." The cultist said. Maria nodded and turned her attention down the hall. She started walking down the hallway, keeping the bolter in the ready position when she heard a "Wait a second." Before she could turn around to ask, Irritus had run back into the room that they'd been held in. Maria frowned when he returned a moment later and tying a chainsword from one of the fallen sisters to his back.

"I thought you couldn't fight." She said motioning to the weapon. Irritus finished tightening the sword to his back.

"It's not for me."

~/~/~

Storm trooper sergeant Alx was having a bad day. For what might have been the seventh time that week he wished that he had not been chosen for the Inquisition. His reward for a lifetime of service in his regiment was to be taken from the regiment as it mustered out and given to an Inquisitor to be used. He frowned under his helmet then put the thought from his mind.

"Alright, double time. Those Heretics are causing a mess downstairs." He said over his shoulder as he picked up his pace. The two storm troopers following him replied an affirmative and he glanced down at his shotgun. 'Damn Heretics', He thought. 'Leave it to me to have to stop them.'

They rounded a corner and he saw another storm trooper stepping out of a side room into the hallway. The trooper looked at him in what might have been surprise, though Alx couldn't see any his face through the helmet.

"You! Fall in!" Alx commanded the storm trooper as they ran past. "Can't you hear the alarms? Those heretics are loose." The storm trooper seemed to hesitate for a second, then began running at the back of the group.

~/~/~

Alain could not recall a time when he was happier. He grabbed the lifeless body of the bounty hunter and moved her out of the way of the door. The psyker examined the door for a moment, and then put his hand on the frame next to the handle. He focused and let the voice he now recognized to his ears and the door began to glow red. He bit his lip and drew back his hand. In one motion he punched through the door, melting the lock as his hand went through. The pskyer smiled a wide grin. He opened the door and stepped outside. Coming face to face with a black clad storm trooper.

"Wait you're not supposed to be-" Alain didn't even think of his next action. His hand was already halfway through the man's gut before he realized what he was doing. The hand found and organ and squeezed on it before letting go and Alain pulled the hand out. The imperial fell to his knees as the hole in his stomach lit on fire and he began to burn from the inside out. He looked up at Alain but the psyker only smiled. He left the man to his fate and started down the hall.

He reached the end of the hallway and pressed his ear to the door. On the other side he could hear voices and footsteps running down a hall. He focused again, this time on the wall itself.

~/~/~

"Behind me!" Maria yelled to Irritus as she squeezed off a trio of bolter shells at the oncoming storm troopers. They had walked into a large room and a larger force of the Inquisitional troopers and now were being backed down a hallway. The cultist got behind the sister and began messing with a panel in the wall. "What are you doing?" The former repentia asked as she downed another storm trooper. Behind her the cultist announced.

"Got it." Immediately the overhead door they'd used to exit the room came down and they were safe from the storm troopers for a moment. Maria sighed and reloaded her bolter. "That won't hold them for long." Irritus said. "Let's try this way." Maria nodded and moved in the direction that the cultist pointed. They made their way down the hall and rounded a corner only to come face to face with another four storm troopers.

"Freeze!" The lead storm trooper said as all the black clad soldiers raised their shotguns. Maria raised her bolter while Irritus jumped behind her. "Drop your weapon or we will shoot!" The same storm trooper said. Then somebody did shoot.

The heavy gauge shotgun shell took the lead storm troopers head clean off. Before anybody could react or even see who had shot there was the sound of the action on a shotgun being worked and Maria watched the left side storm trooper turn around to look into the barrel of the last storm trooper's shotgun.

That man's head exploded more splendidly then the last had and his still living comrade turned his weapon around to aim at his killer before the apparent traitor could eject the spent shell. He put his shotgun in the traitors face but before he could pull the trigger a hail of bolter rounds hit the storm trooper. Maria turned her bolter from the dead man to point at the black armored traitor as that man watched the storm trooper she'd kill fall to the ground. He turned his head to look at her and Irritus for a moment then removed his helmet. The cultist smiled.

"Good to see you Sergeant." Irritus said. Then the wall between them exploded.

~/~/~

Five minutes and three explanations later, the four heretics were running down the hallway together. Edsin was in front with Maria on his left and Alain on his right and Irritus behind him. The two armed heretics had their weapons up and ready while the psyker had an odd focus in his eyes. Edsin had noticed his smile but decided he didn't care enough to ask why. Instead he had a different question.

"So you think that that the generators are downstairs?" He asked as they rounded another corner. Alain nodded.

"Yes I have a…good feeling about it. I can feel the vibrations from them as well." The psyker seemed to be hiding something but before he could decide whether or not to press him on it Irritus spoke up.

"It makes sense." He said between breaths. "Power plants for a hive like this are big, angular, concrete buildings." Edsin noticed that the walls in the hallway had all been bare concrete. Maria spoke up.

"And a building like that would be perfect for an Inquisitor who was in a hive that was being besieged." Edsin nodded, it all made sense. They came to a set of stairs and a map of the facility on a wall. Edsin read the words on the front of the map aloud.

"**Hive Traxis Municipal Power Plant 43**." He found a dot to indicate where they were and looked at the different levels depicted on the map. They were in the eastern most of two identical buildings. Between the two buildings was a reactor of some kind. "OK the reactor is outside." Edsin continued. "We destroy that and it should shut down the void shield." Maria frowned.

"That thing's bigger than this building. How can we destroy it?" Edsin frowned. She was right; they'd need more explosives than you could fit in a baneblade to dent the thing.

"We might not have to." The group all turned their heads to look at the cultist. Irritus pointed to a room in the lower levels of their building labeled **TURBINE ROOM**. "Those turbines generate the power; all we need to do is stop them." Edsin looked at the map again.

"Could you do that?" He asked. Irritus nodded. "Ok then, we just need to find a way to signal that Legionary's friend with the basilisks to start the attack." There was silence in the group for a moment then Alain spoke up.

"I…had an idea about how to contact him." The psyker said. Edsin looked at him and for maybe the first time he didn't have to fake interest in the man.

"How?" Alain hesitated for a second then said.

"The um…voices told me." Edsin looked at the psyker for a long moment then asked.

"Are you still getting headaches?" Alain shook his head. Edsin starred at him a moment longer then nodded. "Ok then that'll work." He took a look at the map again then turned to the rest of his squad. "Alright Maria, you and Irritus get down to the turbine room and shut those things down. He pointed to a spot on the map marked **LANDING PAD**. "Alain and I will meet you here when you're done." The ex-sister and cultist nodded and started down the stairs. Edsin turned to Alain. "Alain, you do whatever it is that you need to do to contact that mutant and get him to start the attack then get over to the landing pad." The psyker nodded and started up the stairs. Edsin looked back at the map when he heard the cultist's voice.

"What are you going to be doing sergeant?" Edsin pointed to the landing pad again.

"I've got something that I need to take care of." Irritus smiled, unhooked the chainsword from his back, and handed it to Edsin.

"I told you I'd get you a working chainsword."

**A/N: As always thoughts, comments, observations, and reviews are always appreciated. Thanks for sticking with me. **

**Warhammer 40,000 is the property of Games Workshop and NOT me**


	12. Chapter 12

Irritus and Maria reached the bottom of the stairs and pressed their ears to the door. They could already feel the vibrations from the turbines and a peak through a crack in the door confirmed that the room held the machines they were looking for. The look inside also told them that the turbines were guarded by more of the storm troopers, these ones armed with lasguns rather than shotguns.

"Those will give them range against us." Maria said pointing them out to Irritus. "Any ideas?" The cultist bit his lip and took another look through the door.

"Those sisters who were guarding us." He said. "They were from your convent?" Maria nodded. "Did your convent do much work for the Inquisition?" Maria tilted her head and thought for a second.

"No…the order did, but the convent here was too small to send anyone." Irritus nodded.

"Then the ones guarding us must've been picked up by the Inquisitor after the convent got overrun." Maria suddenly remembered the blue clad noble from the woods.

"What are you thinking?" She asked.

~/~/~

Corporal Jenson, Inquisitional Storm Trooper, was nervous. For the sixth time since they'd come on he looked up at the red alarm klaxons. It simply wasn't right. In the event of any kind of emergency, he and the other storm troopers guarding the turbines were to remain at their posts unless expressly ordered by the Inquisitor himself. The problem was that this emergency had started with a power outage and the alarm was still going after thirty minutes.

It wasn't right. He looked around the room at the rest of the half dozen other storm troopers on and around the scaffolding surrounding the four turbines. A couple seemed uneasy, but the rest seemed as calm as though they'd just had a mug of recaf. He frowned and looked at the alarm again.

Working for an Inquisitor kept him on edge, and if that wasn't enough he'd gone and Inducted a bunch of battle sisters into his forces and had them walking around the plant doing Emperor knows what. No sooner had he wondered what the sisters were doing then one of the doors to the room opened up and a woman in power armor strode in.

"Who's in charge here?" She demanded grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. Jenson saw that she was dragging a scrawny man by his neck as she walked towards them. "Well? Who is it?" The storm trooper sergeant on duty walked up to the group that had formed around Jenson as the battle sister reached them.

"What in the throne is going on?" The woman scoffed and forced the man she was dragging to his knees in front of her.

"This man is an escaped heretic. I found him roaming the halls free. I thought that your Inquisitor had ordered these men locked up." The sergeant frowned.

"The Inquisitor did order these men locked up, and he ordered your sisters to guard them." He said with a bit of reproach. "Their escape is what has been causing these alarms." He gestured to the klaxon still going off. The sister scowled.

"Well I can see how seriously you take the Emperor's work. Standing around during an alarm." The heretic whimpered and the sister cuffed him. He looked up at the storm troopers faces until his gaze fell on Jenson's.

"Garrath?" He said in surprise. Jenson cocked his head to the side. The Heretic smiled. "Garrath it is you. Help me out of here." The battle sister and sergeant both stopped arguing and looked at Jenson. His sergeant narrowed his eyes at him.

"Jenson what's this man on about?" Jenson noticed all eyes on him and took a step back.

"I don't know sergeant." Jenson said. "I've never seen him before." The heretic shook.

"Garrath, free me from these corpse worshipers." The other storm troopers turned so their bodies faced Jenson. The corporal began to sweat.

"I…I swear I don't know who he is. I d-don't know what he's talking about." The sergeant turned the safety on his lasgun off.

"He sure seems to know you." As the storm troopers all faced down their comrade they didn't notice that the heretics bonds had come undone or that the battle sister had raised her bolter to point at their backs.

~/~/~

Alain ran up the stairs at a full sprint, a broad grin on his face. He reached the top floor and at the top of the stairs the hallway split. A sign told him that to the right was the landing pad and to the left was the roof access. He went left and started climbing up the metal rungs of a ladder.

The climb seemed to take too long and by the time he clambered onto the roof he was nearly out of breath. He looked around and as he looked west his breath caught in his throat. There in the distance was the wall that the Host had been trying to breach for longer than he's been a traitor. It was a massive thing dotted with large machines that he guessed were for the void shied. He strained his eyes to look beyond.

Past the wall he could see the snow covered fields and trench works, the buildings of the outer hive and masses of heretics and traitors. And somewhere in the middle of all that was the mutant that he need to contact to breach this wall. He took a solid stance, closed his eyes, and let the voices come to him.

The darkness that appeared when he closed his eyes soon gave way to a dozen white blurs below him. He unfocused his internal vision and expanded his scope, seeing more blurs of different colors. Farther and farther his vision stretched, the psyker seeing more than he'd imagined that he could. He saw over the wall and into the massed groups of the heretics, some of them white others blood red or grey or colors that he couldn't describe.

Alain took a deep breath and tried to focus on the details of the blurs. He singled out the mutants, their colors an odd mixture of brown and green. He sorted through the blurs and tried to pick out the mutant from before. He found the most likely candidate and peered into his mind…

~/~/~

The last four rounds of the magazine were enough to finish off the last of the storm troopers guarding the turbines. Irritus smiled and Maria smiled back at him. She slung the bolter and asked.

"OK, that's that. How do we shut off the turbines?" Irritus approached the nearest counsel and stared at it for a moment. Maria watched his expression change from a smile to a more neutral one and finally into a frown. "Is something wrong?" She asked. The cultist turned to face her.

"Not really. I mean I knew how to fix the problem at my factory so I thought that I could break this one by doing the same thing but it's a different model." Maria frowned and bit her lip.

"Well, what was the problem last time?" She asked. Irritus scratched his chin.

"A rodent got caught in the turbine fans..." He trailed off and traced her line of sight past him to the armored bodies on the scaffolding. He looked back at the sister. "Oh those might work."

~/~/~

Matti didn't feel right. The team that had gone to shut down the power plant had been gone too long. He looked at the sky above the wall and watched the different explosions that marred the sky. He frowned, still not seeing the blue flare that would signal him and his basilisk to action and crouched back down behind the side armor on his basilisk. Another mutant handed him a mug of recaf and they drank in silence. After a minute Matti tossed the mug over his shoulder.

"Should have signaled by now." He said standing. The other mutant looked up at him.

"You think that something went wrong boss?" It asked. Matti looked at him with a frown.

"Something must have otherwise….otherwise he….he…would have…" The multi eyed muttered and fell off the weapon platform face down into the dirt. His companion jumped down after him and turned him over.

"Boss…Boss? Are you alright?" He shook him and tried to wake him up. Matti seemed lifeless for a moment before sitting straight up.

"Wake up the crews." He said wide eyed. The Mutant looked at him funny.

"Uh, boss? You just took a bit of a fall and-"

"Wake everyone up!" Matti said cutting him off and standing. He Jumped back onto the basilisk and knocked on the driver's compartment to wake the mutant there.

"Boss, what's going on?" The first mutant asked. Matti turned around to face him, a wild look in his eyes and a smile on his face.

"It's time!"

~/~/~

Inquisitor Robert of the Ordo Hereticus was in trouble. He had watched the power fail in his power plant. He had ordered the alert after the storm troopers guarding his 'project' had failed to report in. He had heard the noise and felt the vibrations in the building as the turbines in the basement had broken and fallen silent. Worst of all, he had heard the reports from the wall that his Void Shield device was faltering and in some places had failed completely. He took a deep breath and placed his mask back on his head. It was time to leave this world.

He stepped out of the office that he had been using and into the hall, almost running towards the landing pad at the other end. Normally there would have been a pair of storm troopers or even a few of the rescued sisters standing guard at his door but he'd ordered them to deal with the heretics. So far he hadn't heard from any of the sisters, storm troopers, or even the blank bounty hunter he'd hired. He snorted and patted the power sword at his side. They were either dead or failures so he would concern himself with them no more.

He walked out onto the roof where the landing pad and his personal shuttle were parked. Snow had started to fall on the cold world but he hardly noticed it. Instead he approached the ship that a single storm trooper stood guard at.

"Get the ship started we're leaving." He ordered. The storm trooper raised his hand and ran up to the Inquisitor.

"Inquisitor, there's an urgent message for you." The storm trooper said when they were face to face. Robert thought that he recognized the voice but couldn't place it.

"Well what is so impor-" The masked man was cut off as the storm trooper butt stocked him in the face with his shotgun. He fell down but regained his composure quickly and kicked out at the man knocking him to the ground as well. He kicked him again and sent him rolling away, his black helmet and shotgun rolling away from him. Standing the Inquisitor saw who it was.

"You!" He sneered with hate in his voice. Edsin stood and pulled the chainsword from his side and activated the blades. The Inquisitor unhooked his mask, letting the heavy thing fall to the ground, and grabbed the power sword from his hip. He pressed a rune set into the side and activated its power field.

~/~/~

Brother Marcus could not remember what his home planet was. He was well over 500 years old and had forgotten a good many things. He could no longer remember what his father's face looked like. He could not remember what it was that his family had done. He had forgotten most everything from then but that had never bothered him. He had always told himself that such things were not important. That they pertained not to the Emperor's work. That he had no recollection of some small details of his past was not something to be worried about.

He had told himself these things as he had first left the scouts and became a full marine. He had told himself these things when he became a sergeant and lead his own squad. And he had told himself these things when his body had failed him and he was entombed in a dreadnaught, his own four limbs replaced by those of metal. Lumbering forward with only three of those limbs, the things he had told himself seemed hollow.

For the first time in as many centuries he could not remember his distant past and it bothered him. He had, he realized, forgotten his humanity.

He thought of all of this as he smashed through the wall separating an alleyway from a courtyard in the hive. He thought of these things as he grabbed the first surprised guardsman in the alleyway and threw him into the opposite wall. He thought of these things as the rest of the squad opened fire at him with their lasguns and the red bolts bounced off his armored body. He thought of these things as he killed the rest of the squad.

The fallen techpriest that had repaired him came through the hole he made and ran up next to him. Marcus looked down at the fallen techpriest next to him and wondered if he could change some of the things he was thinking about now.

"Where to from here techpriest?" He asked in the deep voice all dreadnaughts had. All around him the hive was in chaos. With the wall breached, the forces of the dark gods had poured into the hive and began the slaughter. Now it was only a matter of time before the hive fell. The techpriest looked at the auspex mounted in his forearm.

"They must have gone to the nearest power plant to cause the void shields to fail." He said looking at the device. After a moment he nodded and pointed down the alley. "This way!"

~/~/~

The two swords met with in a shower of sparks, the metal teeth of Edsin's sword biting into the power field of the Inquisitor's weapon. They knocked off each other and both combatants brought them up over their heads. The swords met again and this time they slid along each other and locked at the hilts. Both men leaned into their attacks, putting all their strength in them. After a moment Edsin deactivated his chainsword and let the power weapon catch between the blades.

No sooner had the other weapon caught then Edsin twisted his own and sent the Inquisitor's blade pointing at the ground. The traitor used the opening to land a punch into the Inquisitor's face. The scarred man reeled backwards, taking his weapon with him as he fell. The power sword knocked the chainsword in Edsin's hand and put him off balance. The Inquisitor seized his chance and kicked Edsin in his ankle. Edsin fell on his side next him. With a grunt he reactivated his chainsword and swung it over himself at the Inquisitor.

Inquisitor Robert brought his power sword up just in time to stop the attack. The blades pushed against each other as both men stood. Edsin broke off the attack and kicked out at his opponent's side. The Inquisitor twisted out of the way and lunged at Edsin. The traitor knocked the blade away with his own, but missed the real attack.

The Inquisitor may have had less muscle than the sergeant, but he was as tall as Alain and his shoulder connected with the traitor's forehead. The attack threw him to the ground and the Inquisitor jumped on top of him, pinning him there.

Robert brought his power sword down on Edsin as the traitor blocked the attack with his chainsword the best he could. It was a losing struggle. Slowly, very slowly, the Imperial was overpowering him. As the blades neared his chest he did the only other thing he could think of. He brought his right knee up.

The armored kneecap connected with the Inquisitor's stomach and the man flinched. Edsin took the opportunity to swipe the power weapon aside, launching both weapons away from the combatants. He grabbed the still stunned Imperial by his ears and brought his head towards his own in a brutal head-butt. Edsin was rewarded with the wet sound of the Inquisitor's nose breaking for what he was sure wasn't the first time. He'd expected the Imperial to grab his nose by reflex, but instead Edsin was rewarded with a fist in his face.

He was dazed for a second but recovered and grabbed the right hand that had hit him before it could retract. He twisted the hand backwards until heard something inside the hand snap. This time the Inquisitor screamed in pain. Edsin used the opportunity to roll the man off of him. Robert fell onto the landing pad holding his broken hand. He looked at Edsin and saw the man running for the shotgun he'd dropped. Robert's breath became labored as he starred at the traitor.

"Not…today…Heretic…" Edsin suddenly felt cold in a way that the falling snow never could. He grabbed the shotgun and turned around only to be frozen in his tracks.

He had him. The Inquisitor was unarmed and sitting in the snow only ten feet away and yet he couldn't move his muscles to shoot him. "Enough games sergeant." Robert said as he stood. Edsin tried to move but felt something in his head. "It's time to put an end to this project of mine." Edsin closed his eyes. He just had to block him out. "It's no use." The Imperial said. "I'll fry your brain either way." Edsin took and deep breath and cleared his mind. Then, slowly, very slowly, he brought the shotgun up. "What are you doing?" Robert demanded. Edsin leveled the weapon. "How are you moving?" Edsin's pointer finger slowly flexed until-

BOOM

All at once Edsin regained control of his body. He opened his eyes to see the black clad man sitting in a pile of white snow turning red. The blast had taken him in his stomach. It would kill him, but mostly from blood loss. The Inquisitor looked down at the wound then at Edsin.

"You dumb son of a bitch." He said. Edsin racked back on the shotgun, ejected the spent shell, and chambering a new one. "You think you've won? By killing me?" Edsin stepped next to Robert. The Imperial laughed. "You think you can stop me this easy? Edsin pointed the barrel between the Inquisitor's eyes. Robert smiled. "I ordered the Exterminatus on this world a month ago." Edsin pulled the trigger.

**A/N:****Another chapter closer to the end! Honestly guys I'm not 100% on the last fight here, but I've already reworked it several times. If anyone has any suggestions or comments on it, I'd love to hear them.**

**Warhammer 40,000 is the property of Games Workshop and NOT me**


	13. Chapter 13

"_I ordered the Exterminatus on this world a month ago."_

Edsin thought over the dead Inquisitor's final words as he noticed that some of his head had splattered onto his boots. One part of his brain was screaming that impending doom was hurtling at him from space and for once the other part of his mind could not simply ignore it or decide it didn't care. He scraped his boot on the dead man's jacket to try and get some of the blood off and looked over at the Inquisitor's shuttle.

~/~/~

"How does this keep happening?" Maria yelled over the sound of bolter fire. The two heretics had managed to drop the armored bodies into the turbines and stop the primary function of the building, and in the distance they could hear the sounds of battle approaching, but they were still in trouble. There were no more storm troopers, but the remnants of Maria's old order had made their way to the turbine room and now she was trading bolter fire with a handful of sisters. Irritus peaked out from where he'd taken cover behind a control counsel and got a good look at the room.

They were pinned down on one end of the scaffolding between two turbines with the wall to their back. Consequently, the sisters firing at them had the only exit completely locked down and were in decent cover behind some crates. He frowned.

"That door's the only way out." He yelled over to Maria as he ducked another bolter burst. Maria nodded and loaded her last magazine.

"Last one, any ideas?" Irritus looked around for something, anything he could use to turn the tide or at least get them out of there. As he looked he became aware of a dull, rhythmic, thumping sound. Before he could wonder what it was it had gotten louder, loud enough to be heard over the bolter fire. Maria looked over at him. "What is that-" She never finished that sentence.

Behind and under them, the entire wall erupted outwards and filled the large room with dust. Irritus had barely cleared his eyes when he saw what had destroyed the wall. There, below them on the ground floor and stepping through the hole it had made was an imperial dreadnaught. It was damaged, the cultist noticed one of its arms missing, and for a moment the sisters had stopped firing and looked at the new arrival. It wasn't long before one of the sisters yelled.

"Marine! Help us eliminate these heretics!" The dreadnaught had been lumbering forward this entire time and was now directly between the two groups. It twisted its body as though to look at the heretics sitting on the scaffolding above them, but its legs continued carrying it towards the sisters. "Marine?" The same sister said again. "What are you doing?"

The dreadnaught reached the first sister and without breaking pace made a fist with his one arm and smashed the woman's head in. The other sister's reacted instantly.

"Heretic!" They yelled as they opened fire on the armored walker. The bolter rounds bounced off and ricocheted away and while some seemed to puncture, none did any real damage. The walking tomb lumbered forward and grabbed another sister, tossing the armored woman into the far wall. As all of this happened Maria and Irritus could only watch speechless. They starred at the spectacle before them before a familiar voice got their attention.

"Ah, there you are. I was starting to worry that I would never find you all." Datave, metal arm and all ran up onto the scaffolding behind them and took cover next Irritus. The cultist looked at the heretek with wide eyes.

"Datave? What are you doing here? How'd you get into the hive?" He motioned to the battle ahead. "Where'd you find a dreadnaught?" The human half of his face smiled.

"It seems I was not the only one to reflect on his duty to humanity lately." Neither Irritus nor Maria seemed to understand what the former tech-adept meant, but both managed a nod. Maria pointed to the far door.

"We need to get through there. We're meeting the rest of the squad on the roof." Datave nodded.

"Ok, follow me!" Without looking to see if the others followed him Datave charged the door, lasgun in hand. Irritus ran after him, and after a second Maria did too. They ran down the scaffolding, all but ignored by the sisters as they focused on the dreadnaught. Datave waived them on to the door and turned to face the entombed marine.

"Marine, this is my squad! We're all heading to the roof!" Datave said waving for Marcus to follow. The dreadnaught lifted another sister in the air and crushed her back between his claws.

"Go with them then techpriest!" He said tossing the body aside. "I still have work to do here." Datave nodded.

"Good luck marine." And with that the heretics ran through the door and made for the stairs.

~/~/~

Alain wasn't certain at first, but he thought that he had found the mutant he was looking for. For a long while nothing happened and he worried that his efforts had been in vain. Then, he noticed it. It was hardly noticeable at first, be he recognized the thoughts all coming from one part of the wall, then another. FEAR. The people there were all afraid. It wasn't long before he saw the visual effects of his work. Kilometers away in the distance, the wall began to shake and then fall. First one section, then another and another until the entire defensive network was crumbling. The psyker smiled to himself.

Without another thought he turned around and began to climb back down the ladder. He reached the floor with the landing pad without incident. He walked back down the hall and onto the snow covered pad. He'd noticed the snow beginning again when he was on the roof and noticed that it had picked up as he'd climbed down. Alain could see a kind of shuttle parked on the pad as well as two figures. One standing over the other with a shotgun.

"Sergeant!" He called. Immediately Edsin looked up. Alain ran up to him. "I think I got that mutant's attention." He said. As if to accent his point they heard the sound of incoming artillery a few blocks away. The traitor-sergeant nodded.

"Sounds like it." He said over the blast. "Did you see the others? We need to-"

"Sergeant!" Irritus' voice was entirely too cheerful in Edsin's opinion but he put the thought away and instead noted that there was a third person beside him and Maria. It hardly looked like a person to Edsin, what with a metal arm and half its face replaced. They ran up to him and the third person spoke.

"I hope you didn't think I forgot about you all sergeant." He said with a smile on the human half of his face. Edsin noted that he had forgotten about Datave. He shook his head.

"Ok, no time to waste." He picked up his chainsword and motioned to the shuttle. "Can anyone fly that?" The group all looked at Datave. The heretek's mechanical eye telescoped in and out.

"An easy matter, for one of my skill."

~/~/~

The 'shuttle' actually turned out to be a sort of modified valkyrie. Most of the troop compartment had been filled in with equipment crates but there was still enough room for the heretics. Datave busied himself behind the controls while the rest of the squad strapped themselves down in the troop compartment.

Edsin stepped into the cockpit and looked at Datave ran his hands up and down the controls, stopping now and again to make an adjustment.

"Can this thing fly?" He asked after a moment. The former tech-adept nodded but didn't look up at Edsin.

"It can indeed; I simply need to make some final adjustments." He flipped a pair of switches then without looking up asked. "Where are we going exactly?"

Edsin frowned and looked outside through the front window. The snowstorm was picking up but he could still see the battle through it all and didn't like what he saw. All around him there was black smoke rising into the air from some habs and the sound of incoming artillery and tank rounds assaulted his ears. His mind was torn between the positive fact that they host was overrunning the hive, and the negative fact that any moment that Exterminatus might hit. If they were holding out in case the hive survived or for the Inquisitor to get out, they wouldn't be holding out for much longer.

"Get us into space. We need to be on one of the ships." He paused and Datave looked up at him. "Even if it isn't one of ours." Datave nodded and pressed a rune.

"Tell everyone to prepare for takeoff." Edsin walked back into the troop compartment. He noted that everyone was already strapped in and took the last open seat. Irritus leaned over and asked over the roar of the engine.

"Where are we headed to sergeant?"

~/~/~

Commissar Garks, commander of the baneblade_, Terra's Wrath_ guided his vehicle around a smoldering hab building and onto a main street. The multi ton vehicle didn't slow as it crushed and autocab that had been left abandoned there.

"Driver, keep us on this street for the next three kilometers, Gunners keep your eyes open, we should encounter the heretics any minute." _Terra's Wrath _was leading the armored counter attack in this district, and Garks was looking forward to personally throwing each and every one of the heretics back over the wall. He decided to open up the hatch and look around for a better view. He opened it and stood, immediately regretting it for the cold, but taking his time to look around.

It was because he did this that he was able to spot a trio of guardsmen running into the street from and alleyway. Garks noted at once that they were all without their weapons and sprinting away from something, with no thought to proper military movements. They were running scared.

"Driver stop." He commanded. The vehicle stopped and he pulled up the vehicles external vox to shout at them when he saw what was chasing them. A marine dreadnaught.

~/~/~

Marcus stepped into the street, three mechanical limbs and all, chasing after the squad of guardsman. As he left the alleyway he glanced to the left and just barely visible in the corner of the rectangle cut in his armor that was his viewport was an Imperial tank. He stopped and turned for a better look, forgetting the guardsmen.

The tank was larger than him, a full sized baneblade. The two war machines simply starred at each other for a long moment before the external vox on the baneblade came to life.

"Marine, this is Commissar Garks of the Baneblade _Terra's Wrath_. Identify yourself." Marcus stated lumbering towards the vehicle. "Identify yourself or I will find you guilty of heresy!" Marcus forces his leg servos to move faster. The baneblade opened fire.

The first shot was from the demolisher cannon and it went wide, over the dreadnaught's shoulder though the force of the air was enough to stagger him for a second. The second shot was from the vehicle's main cannon itself and this one was a little closer to target. The meter long shell missed but still ripped apart his remaining arm from sheer force of displaced air and caused him to stumble. He nearly fell over but twisted himself to shift his center of gravity in a move he'd learned when he first became a dreadnaught. He continued on.

Fifty meters away the side mounted heavy bolters opened up on him as well as the autocannon but neither had any real effect on his armored frame. He closed to within 10 meters and the rest of the heavy bolters and pintle mounted lascannon finally was able to acquire a shot.

~/~/~

"What the hell is he doing?" Commissar Garks asked no one in peculiar. The armless war machine had lumbered directly in front of them. 'It can't possibly hurt us…' His thought trailed off as it raised one of its legs and stepped onto the tank. The front of the tank began to sag and as the dreadnaught brought its other foot down onto his vehicle he heard the metal began to bend. At once there was the searing red burst as the lascannon fired at point blank range, obliterating the place where the entombed marine would have been.

Lifeless, the rest of the dreadnaught slumped over on the tank, smashing the demolisher cannon and blocking the main weapon. Garks was truly speechless. His baneblade was still intact but I'd had its primary weapons disabled and then been immobilized. All by an armless traitor.

~/~/~

As the shuttle took to the sky, Datave saw through the falling snow that it was joining an uncountable number of vehicles already there. With the void shield down, the chaos cruisers in orbit had sent out all their fighters and here and there he had to maneuver then past falling chaotic drop pods. The Imperium was in the skies too. Their fighters and valkyries swooped around the buildings and after the traitor ships. There were loyalist drop pods falling as well, too fast for the heretek to see what chapter, but in large numbers.

Taking into account the air battle raging around them, Datave thought their best chance was to get clear of the city before heading into orbit. They had plenty of fuel and the shuttle's navigational system was the best he'd ever seen. With any luck they'd be in orbit soon.

~/~/~

No one would ever be able to say just where the hunter-killer missile had come from. It could have been launched from any of the traitor craft in the area who saw only a vehicle with imperial markings. It could have come from any of the 344th Gavain vendettas that had taken to the skies with orders to shoot down everything for fear of traitors. It could have even come from the ground or somewhere else entirely. Regardless, the missile slammed into the tail of the shuttle and detonated. The resulting explosion destroyed the tail of the craft completely and sent the shuttle hurtling towards the ground below…

**A/N:****One more chapter to go! If anyone has any comments on this story I'd love to hear them. **

**Warhammer 40,000 is the property of Games Workshop and NOT me**


	14. Chapter 14

Beep…Beep…Beep…

Edsin slowly opened his eyes to the constant beeping. He was sitting strapped to the inside of the shuttle. When the craft had begun to descend he'd braced for impact in the only way he could think of. Holding onto his seat and restraints as tight as possible. He shook his head to clear it and unhooked his safety restraints. A quick glance around told him that the rest of his squad was unconscious. He stood to wake them….and immediately fell over.

He had almost forgotten the wound above his left knee. He reached a hand inside his armor and felt around. The area was tender but when he removed his hand it was clear of any blood. He sighed, at least the tourniquet had held even if the drugs had worn off.

He forced himself to his feet and stumbled over to a white box with a red aquila on it attached to one wall. He rifled through it until he found a syringe and more spur. He filled the syringe and injected himself with the combat drug, instantly feeling relief from the pain. He pocketed the rest of the spur and began looking through the rest of the kit when he became aware of the beeping again. He turned around and realized that it was coming from one of the crates. He frowned, annoyed just enough to care, and stepped past his sleeping squad mates to a crate at the end of the shuttle. He undid the latches and looked at what was inside.

Inside Edsin was looking at a meter long cylinder. It had a red light at one end and several yellow and black CAUTION labels all over it. Edsin would have had no idea what it was if it wasn't for the large block letters on the side.

**BLUE TIDE EXTERMINATUS STRIKE BEACON **

"Shit."

~/~/~

"EVERYBODY UP!" Edsin yelled as he shoved the cylinder under another seat. Instantly Irritus and Maria opened their eyes, looked at each other, and then began undoing their restraints. Alain was still out and Edsin grabbed him by his collar. One part of his mind told him that hitting an unconscious psyker might be a bad idea, while the other part told him that there was no time. The latter part won and Edsin slapped him across the face. The psyker woke up with eyes wider then Edsin thought humans could go.

"What's happening?" He asked franticly. Edsin let go of his collar.

"It's time to go." He said heading towards the cockpit. "Grab whatever equipment you can find and let's move." He walked into the cockpit, already calling for the heretek. "Datave, get up. It looks like were…" He trailed off as he saw the metal beams from the building they'd crashed into that had penetrated the plasteel canopy and impaled the former tech-adept. "…On foot now." He finished frowning. He grabbed a laspistol from the holster next to the pilots' seat as well as Datave's lasgun and left the cockpit.

~/~/~

Maria undid her restraint and immediately went to the crates. Her bolter had all of half a magazine left and she hoped that there would be more ammunition somewhere in here. The first crate was empty so she tossed it aside. The second crate had some weight to it so she undid the latches on the side. What she found inside almost made her shout with joy.

~/~/~

Irritus looked through some of the crates around him, finding nothing of any real interest. He was about to ask Maria if she's found anything and turned around to see a surprising sight. The former repentia was hefting a heavy bolter and looking inside the crate the cultist saw the belt fed ammo sitting in a backpack.

"Can you help me get this on?" She asked. Irritus smiled and nodded.

~/~/~

Alain unhooked his harness, took one look at the boxes and went for the shuttle's door. He wasn't interested in any weapons now that his own mind was one. The sergeant had been right. Now that he wasn't trying to block out the voices he felt great. He left the shuttle and stepped into the ruined building they'd crashed into.

The building itself was largely intact. The shuttle was only about 2/3 of the way though the building so it sealed the hole it'd made fairly well. The rest of the walls seemed mostly intact with only windows broken. Inside much of the furniture was knocked over or broken and there were places along the wall where he could see pictures once hung. It looked as though the place had been looted then forgotten. The psyker looked around for some stairs but it seemed there was only one floor.

"How does it look?" An uncaring voice asked from behind him. Alain turned around to see the sergeant, the cultist and Maria exiting the transport. He noticed that the sister was now carrying a heavy bolter and that the last member of their group was missing.

"Pretty good for now. Where's Datave?" Edsin shook his head.

"Didn't make it. You and Maria take a look out those windows; see if you can see a landmark or something to tell us where we are." Alain and the ex-sister nodded and started towards the windows. "Irritus." Edsin said in a commanding voice. The cultist looked at him smiling. Edsin held Datave's lasgun out to him.

"Uh, Sergeant that thing with the heavy stubber was all you. I still can't-" The sound of rushing air cut him off.

"INCOMING!" Alain yelled. All the traitors dove for the floor, covering their heads from the inevitable detonation but it never came. After a minute Edsin poked his head up and saw the others all looking around.

"Sergeant I-" Edsin put a hand over Irritus's mouth and mouthed the word 'quiet.' He waved to Alain, pointed at his own eyes, then at the direction on the sound. The psyker nodded and crawled over to the window. Edsin pushed the lasgun into Irritus's hands and pointed to the opposite wall. "Keep an eye out that side." He whispered to him. The cultist nodded and began crawling over in that direction. Edsin crawled up towards the window next to Alain.

"What do you see?" He whispered. The psyker got down below the windowsill.

"Ceramite. Lots of red and Black ceramite." Edsin swore.

"Did you see what was on the pauldrons?" Alain shook his head.

"No but I did see a couple of Aquilas. They're mostly in the building across the street though I can sense a couple in the buildings on either side." Edsin swore again. He bit his lip and thought for a second.

"Ok, we stay here and stay quiet. There's no reason that they would come in here if we don't-

"Inquisitor!" A mighty voice boomed. "This is the Lion Claw Marines. Are you in there?"

"Fuck." Edsin said under his breath. He waived Maria over who until now had been covering the side window. He pointed to the window they were at and she nodded. Edsin directed Alain to another window farther along the wall.

"Inquisitor!" The mighty voice called again. "We are coming inside." Edsin stood next to Maria.

"Open up on the first marine you see, but hold fire when he goes for cover." He whispered to her. She nodded and worked the action on the heavy weapon. Not a minute later a marine stepped out of a building across the street. No sooner had he come into sight then Maria opened up on him with the heavy bolter. A half dozen bolt rounds in the chest was enough to make the red and black armored marine dive back into cover. The sound of the bolter died away and the street went quiet.

"Now we've done it." Alain muttered as he tried to sense the marine's thoughts and there by their positions.

"What now?" Irritus asked. Edsin frowned and waved the cultist over to him. He placed him next to Maria and then moved over to the doorway to cover the last opening in this wall.

"Heretics!" The voice was the same and surprisingly so was the tone. "You are completely surrounded," Edsin looked to the psyker for confirmation and the former guardsman nodded. "And further waste of life would be regrettable. Surrender now and you will all be granted the Emperor's mercy. It is your choice."

"What do we do sergeant?" Irritus asked. Edsin noticed that Alain and Maria were looking at him as well.

"You have thirty seconds to comply." The marine finished. Edsin's felt the pain in his leg start again and he sat down against the wall. With one hand he reached for the syringe and with the other he took out the last of the spur.

"Hey Irritus." He said as he prepared the needle. "You asked me why I turned to Chaos." He injected himself and bit his lip as the drug took effect. He sighed as the pain went away. Irritus nodded and looked at him.

"Yes?" The cultist didn't really understand where he was going with this.

"Truth is that I don't really remember myself." Irritus grinned.

"I'm sure it was a good reason sergeant." He replied. Edsin managed a small smile. He tossed the syringe and looked at his squad.

"How do you guys feel about one more charge?" For a long moment no one said anything and the only sound was the war raging in the distance. Then slowly at first, Alain began to nod.

"Sounds good to me sergeant." Irritus nodded as well.

"You can count on me sergeant." He said with a grin on his face. Maria smiled too.

"Me too, sergeant." The former repentia said hefting the heavy bolter. Edsin smiled. He unhooked his chainsword from where it's been strapped to his back with his right hand, and flipped off the safety on the laspistol with his left hand. The voice of the marine boomed over them and Edsin noticed the tone of disappointment in the voice.

"So be it." Edsin looked back at his comrades in time to see Maria lean over and kiss Irritus on the cheek. Both the cultist's smile and his own got a little wider.

"Alright on three. One…two…three!"

And with that the four traitors leapt over windowsills and charged out the door. From the positions they left the sound of lasweapons and a heavy bolter could be heard for a moment before they were drowned out by the reports of a dozen more bolters, of all kinds. Then there was no sound. The street was silent once more and the only sound was the battle in the distance.

~/~/~

12 hours later

+ + + Imperial Emperor-Class Battleship BLUE TIDE + + +

"Any word from the Inquisitor?" The captain asked. The officer at the communication station shook his head.

"Negative sir. The marines also report that his body was not onboard the shuttle they found." The captain sighed. He hated this part of the job. It was always difficult and he wished there was another way.

'Perhaps if those void shields the Inquisitor had installed around the hive had worked, the reinforcements could have arrived in time and this world could be saved.' He thought to himself as he looked down at the snow covered world. 'Perhaps, but since they didn't this world will be lost.'

"We can wait for him no longer." He said aloud. "The Inquisitors orders were clear." He paused for a moment. "Put me through to the fleet, every voxcaster." There was a business at some terminals for a moment, then a nod to him. "This is the captain of the Emperor-Class Battleship _Blue Tide_. In accordance with the orders of the Ordo Heretics branch of the Inquisition I hereby authorize the use of Exterminatus on the world below." He turned to the gunners station.

"You may fire when ready."

**THE END**

**A/N: Well, I finally made it to the end. Special thanks to Englishdragon10 on deviant art for letting me use the Lion Claw Marines and proofreading this chapter. **

**Now that's it's all over what did everybody think about it? I'd really like to know what everyone's thoughts are. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, you guys kept me going and were a big help. I hope you all had as much fun reading this as I did writing it. **


	15. Epilouge

Edsin slowly opened his eyes.

"Ah, you're awake." A voice that was both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time said. Edsin looked around. He was sitting in a blue upholstered chair in a white room that seemed to go on in every direction without end. Opposite him was another blue chair with a man sitting there who looked both familiar and unfamiliar to the traitor sergeant. "Took a few bolts I see." The man remarked with a gesture towards him. Edsin didn't understand and followed the man's gaze to his chest. There, punched through his armor, were three large holes. He considered them for a moment before looking back at the man. "Now isn't that something?" Edsin said nothing.

The man picked up a glass from a nearby table Edsin hadn't noticed there before and took a drink. As he did Edsin remembered the man. The blue clad noble from the forest ambush where he met Maria.

"All coming back to you now isn't it? Shame about your other memories but what can you do?" Edsin shifted in his chair, not entirely comfortable with the implications of what the man was saying. The noble took another drink before continuing. "Now you fit into the plan pretty well. In fact I couldn't have planned what that Inquisitor did to you better." Another drink. "But then you went off the plan and died. LATE." He set the glass back down and leaned forward. "I had planned for you to die in that ambush in that factory." Edsin thought back to when he had met Irritus. The battle had seemed like an eternity ago. "Your living caused those other four to live and that planet to burn." The other man shrugged. 'Not just as planned, but it worked." Edsin tried to remember something Irritus might have told him about Chaos that might explain his current situation but his mind came up blank.

"So then. That just leaves me with the question of what to do with you." Edsin looked down at the holes in his chest. He was dead. He had to be. What could he do? "I have a couple of ideas in mind. Thoughts…plans…" Edsin looked back up at the man. He looked into his eyes and saw something inhuman flicker past. "But for once, it looks like there's someone who works better when he's not following my plans." The man said with another gesture towards Edsin. He seemed to be waiting for a response. The dead sergeant cleared his throat.

"I suppose so." The man nodded stood.

"You're a leader, Mr. Edsin. I expect many good things from you and your squad in the future." He said as he walked up to him. With a final look he put his hand on Edsin's chest and pushed him through the chair. Edsin fell down into a dark pit. As he fell he watched the darkness overtake the light.

~/~/~

Edsin's eyes snapped open. He was strapped to a chair in a large room. Looking around he saw that his chair was only one of thousands stretching in all directions. He looked at the angular metal walls around him and recognized the interior of an aquila lander.

"Are you nervous Sergeant?" Edsin's head spun around to the left and he saw Irritus sitting next to him. The cultist had his commissar's jacket back along with kit and all of its pouches. Sitting next to him was a woman in powered armor. Her hair was short and Edsin noticed a sigil painted on the front of the armor. Maria smiled at him nodded her head towards Irritus. Edsin looked back at the cultist.

"Uh…not really…" The cultist smiled.

"I bet you've done a landing like this before. What about you Alain?" Edsin looked to his right and saw the psyker sitting next to him. He had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a grin on his face.

"Only once, against some Orks." Alain said. "It got pretty messy." Edsin looked past Alain and saw Datave sitting next to him, tinkering with something on his arm. The former tech adept realized he was being watched and looked up. The human half of his face smiled and he waved to Edsin.

"It should be exciting then." Datave said.

Suddenly from above them there was the sound of loud metallic click and the floor seemed to drop out from under them. Edsin looked back at Irritus, about to ask how they'd gotten onto the lander, but decided he didn't care. He was about to go into another battle with a good squad at his back. And that was enough to make him smile.

**A/N: Alright you guys win. After looking at the ending again and thinking about it for a while, I decided I don't want to be done with these characters. Not yet at least. I have a few more ideas for them so expect something else with Edsin and co. in the future. **


End file.
